The Democratic advocate., 1909-12-24
pike.County Fish Story.

rhicn unersistent hawk which took a
Win n steal a big pickerel on the
potion, " hook. The tale is slightly
angiei eiscent of the hunting adventures
renln haron Munchausen, but it is
Of onT nv the fisherman himself, Mr..
told = Ridgway, eX-sheriff of Pike
war; war; Pa. He says
Coul~,,s fighting a pickerel on Goose
"s md hooked the six-pound picker
Ponea ~. - big fish-hawk grabbed while
IA@. wiling the fish in. I had known
wac AT, pyl for more than twenty years.
tlaI tla,dnst n' il had lived in the mountain
A lod d Goose Pond for twenty years
arounro and shared with me and 9th
OF niTa tIo good fishing there was in that
els in those days, and there had
FaI0a been a word between us, so /
pe'o- not a little surprised at it's
Va0obing Vao down that way and fastening
s"OO OnickereI l had hooked.
W%ho nickerel was az the end of fifty
of NV line when the hawk, which
FSJ noticed sailing around over the
! I'D r for an hour or so, took hold of
pOnIt tc the big bird rose from the
It. h.+o%r % with the fish in it's talons it
Veil ':0l1v whiZzed the rest of the line off
qait tbo reel, something over one hun
" 9rOd and fifty-f1ve feet.
ui braced myself and hung on to my
.o10 which was long, stiff bamboo,
pU pJ when the line was all run out, the
snok sn heing deep and firm in the pick
IOJ SoI,c bonv Jaw, the hawk was brought
standstiIl The line held. After
tUo " hawk had given a few flaps of his
~ ~. wings as he was held stationary in
tho J,o air. the boat began to move and the
Sovk was soon towing it across the
d"nd as | chung to the pole. Of course,
: could have got out Of the trouble at
arcpbv cutting the line and letting the
Unwk sail away with it and my big
fSh.. but no sir That was my fish,
and didn't calculate to sit there and
Snt anv highway robbing fowl of the
sir fy away with it.
had a six-shC oting pistol In my
rocket. and l smiled as l took it out
and prepared to load that hawk with
lead and bring him down.
"I hate to plug a familiar acquaint-
snce full of lead," said l. ''but when he
goes to Juggling off a sfx-pound picker
d of mine friendship ceases"
peppered away at the hawk, but
nv wind-gage or range-finder or some
thing like that must have been out of
Tilter. for five of those chunks of lead
vent shy and the sixth one only found
one of the hawks legs. That was
enough to spoil the birds hold on the
pickerel, tho, and down the big fish
tumbled into the pond.
well, 1 only wanted my pickerel
hack, anyhow" said I, "and I'm kind
n clad now that I didn't plug the hawk
full of lead"
But I wasn't glad long. The hawk
he dropt the pickerel, but Immediately
started to take hold of me. 1t pounced
on me in the boat, and I soon found
that, altho | had known the hawk for
twenty years, I hadn't begun to get
acquainted with him yet at all. He
clawed and picked and swatted me
around in the boat, so had to let
loose of my fish-pole and batter and
hang the savage old bird with my pis-
tolbutt. trying to crack his skull or
break a wing or knock him in the pond
and drown him. Maybe I'd have done
some of these things, if not all three
of EN- if I had kept on battering and
hanging. but I thought I saw better
way, and 1 dropt my pistol and grabb-
ed him with both hands tight around
his neck.
There isn't any doubt but that I'd
have choked the bird to death after a
while if the boat hadn't upset just as it
did and pitched me and the hawk
headIong into the water. I either had
to let go of the hawks windpipe then
or find a watery grave, ind I concluded
to let go of the windp1pe. Supposing,
of course, that Mr.. Hawks ducking
would cool the sassy bird off and knock
all the fight out of it, I struck out for
the upturned boat. But instead OF be-
ing cooled off by the ducking the hawk
seemed to be all the more het up by it,
and the hawk Jumped on me again and
grabbed me by the hair. had a good
thick head of hair in those days and
the blasted bird found a good hold on
it. If it had been an Injun getting me
ready for his scalping knife he couldn't
have tugged and tugged at that topknot
of mine more powerful.
The only thing that was left for me
to do was to drive, and II any one nad
told me the hawk wouldn't let go OF my
hair the instant he felt himself going
under I'd have thought they dldn I
know half as much about hawks as =!
did, and I had even then discovered
that | didn't know ding thing ABOUT
em. Expecting that it would let go
and feeling that it would return to the
surface and wait for me until came
up, l reached up and grabbed 1t by
leg to hold it down, but do you know
that contrary bird never relaxed lts
hold on my hair. 1t just held on and
it drowned with it's death clutch In my
hair.
This was a blamed dangerous sltu-
alton for me now. The dead weight
of the hawk was holding me under, ana
l knew | couldn't stay under great
while and expect ever to be a cand1date
for any office again except the coro.
ner's office; so I got my knife out o
my pocket and cut off the Jocks OF nalr
the hawk was hanging on to and we
both popped to the surface togetneI'
The subsequent proceedings interest
ed the hawk no more, of course, put
they were of some Importance 10 me-
and l got to the boat, climbed on IT,
and sat there to get my wind. Wnlie
sitting there putting some and getuns
in few words of opinion about hawks
between times, I discovered my nsh-
pole moving away pretty fast on the
pond, a hundred yards or SO away.
From the way it was travellng
knew that pickerel was alive yet anu y
still hanging to my hook, Wnlcn uiun
surprise me any, for besides pelns tne
voraciousest the pickerel is little Ine
tenaciousest fish that swims. peeieo
nff NV clothes swam out and got the