The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-11

Phineas madden than ever. and he
gave that rod of his a tremendous
yank
Quicker than a powder flash that
bears mouth flew open. and out of it
came howl that made the rocks
trenble. Phineas had hooked the bear
and hooked him we'll.
Then it occurred to him that he
wasn't fishing for bear. and had no
way of carrying this one home even
late to lose any of that line of his, nor
to break his rod, so he began to play
that fool bear for all he was worth
The bear, though. had an idea or
two itself, and one of 'em was that he
wasn't going to fold his arms and be
reeled in like a ding cold bloOded fish,
and so he made a grand rush for
Phineas
The bear got to Phineas. but he
got there too sudden. Phineas jump
ed to one side Kerplunk went the
bear into the deep basin.
From the way the reel whizZed
Phineas knew that he still had the
bear Bruin came to the surface after
while putting like a porpoise.
:" 'Phineas reeled in the slack of his
line and got it taut on the bear just
as if he was playing big trout. The
hook was deep in the bears tongue,
and whenever that misguided animal
made a break for the low shore opoo-
site, Phineas would stiffen on the line.
The hook would get it's work in, and
the bear would raise a howl and swim
back to ease UP on the line.
Now. mind you said this chron-
jclpr of of phinn1S
Kipps feat, impressively, that was
only a six ounce rod. with a fine silk
line. but Phineas played the bear with
such science and skill. my uncle said,
that he worked it right uD under the
tumbling cataract, in spite of the way
it fought and scrambled and splashed
in efforts to get TO the other side of the
creek, where it could have crawled out
and got away if it had been equal to
the occasion.
Phineas Unanswered Bruin about
so deftly in and out of the pounding
cataract that the bear weakened. and
at last after an hours fight, turned
over on its back, gave a kick or two
and farewell howl, and f1oated down
into the still water as dead as a
poisoned pup.
+" That's the kind of a fisherman the
HAL my uDcle KNEW was, coHcluutu
this irrepressble teller of the tale. and
his voice was stronger, if anything.
than it was when he began; and that's
how he landed a bear on a trout hook,
a silk line. and a. six ounce rod
And right here was where the most ,
uncomplimentary silence I ever came
in contact with dropped down. It was
deep. it was dense, it was painful.
1T remained unbroken SO long that
seems to me if l had been the nephew
of the man who knew Phineas Kipp l
would have welcomed stroke of light
ming or a falling roof Then a big
double listed native, whose threatening
sneer and scowl all through the recital
had filed me with foreboding, got up, |
and broke it, and his manner was
fierce.
Say he hOwled. coming close to
the narrator. with his fist in the air. |
How much did that bear weigh?
THE venturesome chronicler lifted |
his voice quite a good deal above even |
its previous altitude, and replied to |
the threatening native.
My uncle is responsible for that |
bear, sir said he. and I am RESPONSE |
BILE for my uncle: I don't know how |
much that bear weighed, but L weigh !
1856 pounds, sir. metz
IF ever scepticism gave way to per- |
feet faith such transformation was |
made instantly in that burly hemlock |
better. and the relapse from that un- |
complimentary silence was so utter |
that even if l myself had held doubt |
as to the landing of that bear by the !
man the narrator's uncle knew, it |
would have disappeared like a dew
1rop before the SUM-
The constituent parts of the condi-
ion that sat confronting Col. Jones
v ben he had finished with this recol-
ection were such that If there were
any uncertainty about them it was
presently. by the Colonefs
>wn by no means tardy recognition of
hem.
The silence 1 have just, in my haste.
'eferred to-" said he, with some posi-
iveness, II said was the most uncom-
ELEMENTARY one I had ever come in con-
act with. but I want TO say right
low that compared with the silence
lifting here this little minute, that one
n the hemlock belt was as laudatory
IS obituary remarks over a departed
and. moreover, as re-
ounding as a reverberating thunder
lap among the rock ribbed hills OF
I'D Steuben!'
SO Col. Jim himself led the way to
he wassail hall hard by, and for the
low of cheerfulness and hope seemed
ONE again.-N. Y. Sun.