The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-07-24

II leap and seized the mouse and then
4 Ibis time had come 4 He fought bravely,
4 but he was fairly hooked and II, q rev
4 minutes he lay out on the bank gaspins
for breath, floppir,g Wildly; q go VI, ana
Il foniing his beautiful sides with sand and
4 dirt. II he had understood English ne
A might have overheard af argument whicl
4 Immediately took place between the ang-
4 Ter and a girl, and which begaf, something
i like this:
"rhere!' In triumphant tone; who
\ says mice aren't &c I'd bait7 rl1is is the
4 biggest trout that's been caught In this
stream for years. " " sI Vi 4. AZ 4
.oh George, don't XIII hint He's SO
4 pretty! Put him back In the water. & &
4 58"1'ut him back In the water /? = Well.
4 L should say not! What do you take me me
4 for ~ 81 81 5E '5 Is & III }s5.
Evidently the gil took him for one
! who could be easily influenced by the
right person, for, she kept up the arg,i-
mcnt, and IL the end she won her case . 9.
i Tho trout WAS tossed back into the
Stream, where he gave himself q al shake
or two, to get rid of5th sand, and then
swan away, apparently as well as ever.
4 But girls don't n always know what Il ~
4 good for trout. i t would renll have been
| kinder c the angler had hit him over
| the head with the butt OF Ills fishing
rod, and then carried him home and put
|
a part OF the mucus had been rubbed
1 from his body, and that always means
trouble for a fish. A few days la ter our
friend met him again, and noticed that
a curious growth had appeared on his
buck and sdes--a growth which bore q
faint resemblance to the bloom on a
peach, and which had taken tho exact
shape or the prints Of the anglers nn-
| gers. The fungus had got him. He was
dying slowly but surely and within q
| swcok he turned over on his back and
|adrifted away down tho stream. a cls
! bear found him whrling round and round
| In a little eddy under the bank, and that
was the end Of him.
| land so our friend became tho king Of
| the trout stream. A q Il M
| * You are not to suppose however. that
| he paid very much attention to his sub.
| jects, Or that he was particularly fond OF
! having them about him and giving them
orders. On the contrary, he had become
very llermit-lik 20 In his habits. In his
youth he had been fond Of society. and he
and his companions had often roamedS
the stream in little schools and bands,
but Of late years his tastes seemed to
have undergone q change, and he kept
to himself and lurked In the shady. sun.
less places till his skin grew darker and
darker, and he more and more rcscm-3
blcd the shadows in which he lived. HIS
depths Of som like low under an
overhanging bank until "a star-gazcr, Dr.
a herring, or n minnow, or some other
bnby-eatcr came In sight, and then to
rush out and swallow him. head first. He
took ample revenge on all those pesky
| little fishes for I'LL that8they had done
and tried to do for him and his brethren
intlle carly days. e The truth Is that every
brook trout Is an 1shmaelitc. Tho hand
of. every 4 creature is against him, from.
that of the dragon-f fly larva to that of the
man with the latest invention In the
way . f. patent fishing tackle. n f5s T.
Yet, III spite OF our friends inorosencss
and, I solitary habits, there were certain.
times ana sea sons when he did come more
or5less$in contact with his Interiors. lii
late spring and early summer lie liked
Ito sport fora while in the ssWif rapids
perhaps to stretch Ills muscles after tho
dull, Squiet8life OF the wintcrtme. or pos
sibly to- free himself from certain little
Insects which sometimes fastened them
selves to his body, and which, for lack
or hands, 1t was rather difficult \ to get.
rid o T.. I'll Here he often met some Of his
subjects, and later. when the hot weather
came on. they all went to the spring holes
which formed their summer rcsorts. 81 And
at such times he never liesitated 10 take,
advantage s. Of his Ell superior size and
Strength Fl Q always picked out the cool-
cst&and most comfortable places III the
| pools and helped Sliimself0to the choicest
morsels or food, and the others took
i what was left without sauostlon. And
| when the summer was gone and the water
grew cold and linvlgorating, and once
more he put9on4 his wedding garments and
hurried away to the gravelly shal oWs,s
how different was his conduct from what
1t had been when he was a yearlng Then!
he was only a hangcr-on;anoW he selected
his nest and his mate toisuit himself, and
nobody ever dared to interfere. III
f43{ The trout had altered III many ways
beside his relations to his fellows. Tho
curving lines of his body we're not quite
assigraceful' as they had once been, and
some times he wore n "a Their lean and
ldilapidated 8 look, especially in tho III six
months from Ii November to May. His
tail D. was not us handsomely forked eas
when s he was young, but was nearly
square across the end and was beginning
to- be a little sfrayed at The corners. Ills
lower jaw had grown out beyond the ups
per, and Its extremity was turned up in a.
wicked 10 oking hook which was almost
aidlshgurement, but Which no often found
very useful in hustllns a younger trout
out OF the way Even his complexion
had grown darker. as we have already
seen Altogether he was less prep ossess-1
ing than3of old, but Off lnuch more for
midable appearance, and the very look
OF him was en- OuBn&tOb scare a IllHHOWt out
Of a years growth. ,3
But, Notwithstanding all changes. the
two great interests OF his everyday life
continued TO be just what they had al
ways been-namely, to get enough to
eat and to keep out OF tho yYays}of his
enemies. for enemies he still had and
would have as long as The u lived. The
ny-hsherlnen,5 with their fea ther-Welghri
rods and their scientific tackle, came
every spring and summer, and only the,
wlsd ON born OF experience kept him from,
falling into their hands, Several times
5lle$met with an otter and had to run for
his life Once q black bear, fishing for
suckers, came near catching a brook
trout. And perhaps the very closest OF
all his close calls came one day when
some river divers exploded a stick Of dy5
nanlite In the water to break up a log-i
Jam. I'he trout was some distance UP the
stream at the ume, but the concussion
stunned him SO that he tloated at the
SURFACE, wrong side up, for several min-
utes before his senses gradually came
back, That Is a fish's way Of faint,
Ing t4 y BEL .ss5 5 te
IN, E1,oi1 ~ q y,a.1 hvi HIN, ho ueyar " q ND