The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-06-18

sitting mere III the SHADOWS, VIII
the cool waters kissing you, and al
ways singing to you, day in ane
day out, and never aweary of it.
Don't you wish you were II
"The green-winged fly circles
around the edge of the proud old
rock. You see a flash in the water
and for second or so the smooth
surface is troubled and foamy. The
green-winged fly is gone.
'Ahap you say. IF you take mine
like that, old fellow, you are lostp
"Then you drop your flies away
below the rock and dance them up
along its mossy side. Flash! Whizz
That is he! You have him!
"Your black gnat is in his jaw
Give him line Keep him away from
that old root there, on the other
side of the brook! Keep him away
reeP e5 It whleRt lase M lfGe EQssF bed faeddp
to free himself! Hold hm taunt !
"Ah, he's beauty! Favor him I!
Favor him!
"Now he goes down stream like
a steam engine! Follow him, and
follow him quick if he leads you a
mile!
Hold on! Hold on! Back he
comes again! Reel in! And don't
hold your rod so low! Straighten
it up Straighten it up! There!
"Now let him worry himself in
that deep pool if he will! That's it!
he is game one, is that king of the
brook, but he is conquered!
'Now he'll follow your line as
you reel him in. Gently, though,
for he will give another surge and
take another plunge when he sees
you! There he comes! All, the
beauty of him! Your net! Aha |
He's yours!
''Place him on the dewy grass.
Don't put your hand on his culver
ing sides! Draw in the favor of
hin Nothing like that grows on
tree or shrub, nor is distilled from
flowers.
"Well, having caught your trout,
you gaze at him awhile as he lies
there in the grass. The sun has
come up in the meantime and is
peeping at your prize through the
openings in the leaves, making his
gold and crimson and sea shell tints
fash and sparkle.
"Then you run your fingers
through his gills and bear him to
the cabin. You lay him, the un-
touched bloom upon him, lightly on
the moss.
There is surely sweet fern grow
ing near, for you can smell it. Per-
haps there is also a clunp or two of
spicewood. If so, all the better.
$50 you pick some sprigs of sweet
fern or spicewood, or both, and place
them at the side of the trout. You
take a piece of clean brown paper,
y5uLrnc oIu Iasnibneu fougn browfr
paper-and you cover it nicely with
the butter that perhaps your Mary
made and which is in the little stone
jar that you sank in the spring at
the edge of the alder thicket last
night. You cover the paper thick
with the butter, and sprinkle pepper
and salt on it.
I'm this paper thus prepared you
wrap the trout, just as he came from
the water a quarter of an hour ago.
Then you wrap some sprigs of the
sweet fern or spicewood about the
paper. Enclose it all in two or
three thicknesses more of the
brown wrapping paper, and bury
your herb ensfrouded trout in the
hot ashes.
"Then you go to the creek and
indulge in soothing ablution in its
limpid waters, after which you take
that little flat bottle of yours, walk
over to the spring, and tamper with
the bottles contents gently.
"By the time you have returned
to the cabin and cut your bread and
started your coffee to brewing, you
may think of uncovering your break
fast from the ashes. When the trout
comes out, and you have removed
its wrappings it looks so much as it
did when it left the water and lay
quivering and flashing in the grass
that you can scarcely believe that it
is dead, and not only dead, but
cooked.
"And there is the trout's natural
smell, sweet and penetrating, which
the herbs kept from wasting away.
"You take your sharp knife and
cut the trout open in the belly
There are its innards shriyelled UP
into a little wad. They all come
away together, and your trout is as
clean as can be. and none of its
naturalness is gone.
"And then you sit down and cal
that trout you are eating trout
that is cooked, and if you don't be
lieve if. trv it once"