The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1909-04-01

nor was there much chance for cast
ing a line, because the water every
where flowed under weeds. arched
thickets of brier and grass and leafy
branches crisscrOssed above.
This place is impossible" said Sci
wyn scornfully. What is Austin
about to let it all grow up and run
Wild
lie recled in his line until only six
inches of the gOssamer leader remained
free. From this dangled single sill
yer bodied fly. glittering in the wind.
There's likely pool hidden under
those bricrS." he said. I'm going to
poke the top of my rod under-this
way Hah!" as heavy splash
sounded from depths unseen and the
reel screamed as he struck.
Up and down. under banks and over
shadows, rushed the invisible fish. and
Selwyn could do nothing for awhile
but let him go when he insisted and
check and recover when the fish per.
mttcd.
Eileen, a spray of green mint be-
tween her vivid lips, watched the per-
formance with growing interest. but
when at length big. fat struggling
specklcd trout was cautiously but sue.
ccssfully lifted out into the grass she
turned her back until the gallant fight.
er had departed this life under mer-
ciful whack from n stick.
That" she said family. "is the part
don't care for. Is he out of all pain?
What? Didn't feel any? oh. are you
quite sure?"
She walked over to him and looked
down at the beautiful victim of craft.
"Oh, we'll" she sighed. you are very
clever, Of course. ana suppose I'll eat
him, but / wish he were alive again
down there in those cool. sweet
depths-
killing frogs and insects and his
smaller brother fish?"
"Dld he do that?"
mo doubt OF II. And II hadn't
landed him heron or a mink would
have done II sooner or later. That's
what n trout Is for-to kill and be
killed"
She smiled, then sighed The taking
Of life and the giving of II were mys.
teries to her. She had never Willingly
killed anything.
ado You say that II doesn't hurt the
trout?" she asked.
"There are no neJves In the jaw
muscles of trout Hahl" as his rod
twltched and swerved under water and
his reel sang again.
And again she watched the perform
ance and once more turned her back.
Let me try" she said when the
coup de grace had been administered
to a lusty, brilliant tinted bull trout.
And, rod in hand, she bent breathless
and intent over the bushes, cautiously
thrusting the tip through a thlcket Of
mint.
she lost two fish, then hooked
third, small one, but when she lifted
1t gasping into the sunlight she shiv-
cred and called to Selwyn:
"Unhook II and throw It back! II
simply can't stand that"'
Splash! went the astonished trout,
and she sighed her relief.
"Theres no doubt about It," she said,
''you and certainly do belong to diff
ferent species of the same genus. Men
and women are separate species. DO
you deny it,"
"I should hate to lose You that way"
he returned teasingly.
"Well, you can't avoid 1t. gladly ad-
NIT that woman is not too closely re-
lated to man. We don't like to Kill
things. It's an ingrained distaste, not
merely a matter of ethical philosophy.
You like TO kill, and it's trait common
also to children and other predatory
animals, which fact" she added airlly,
"convinces me of woman's higher civ
ilizatlon."
1T would convince me, too" he said,
'1f woman didn't eat the things that
man kills for her"
~ know. Isn't II horrid? oh, dear,
we're neither Of us very high in the
scale particularly you"
"Well, I've advanced some since the
good old days when man went WOO
ing with club" he suggested.
"You may have. But anyway, you
don't go woolnG. As for man collec-
lively, he has not progressed so very
far" she added demurely. "As an ex-
ample that dreadful DraymOre man ac-
tualy hurt my wrist
Selwyn looked Mp cnickly, shade of
frank annoyance on his face and a
vision Of the fat svharite before his
eyes. He turned again TO his fishing,
but his shrug wGs more of a shudder
than appeared to he complimentary to
Percy Draymore.
She had OWNED somehow that 1t an
noyed Selwyn 10 know that men had
importune1 her. She had told him of
her experience as innocently as she
had told Nina. and with even less en-
barrassment But that had been long
ago, and now. without any specific rea-
son, she was not certain that she had
acted wisely. although 1t always
amused her 10 see Selwyn's undisguised
impatience whenever mention was
made Of such incidents.