The San Francisco call., 1910-08-21

O Clear and strong the caressing cadences
of the Wizard of Winsted fell into the
depths of well
"Bl-u-u-pp
Quick was the response to the summons A dark
and graceful form shot with arrowlike swiftness
from the sandy bottom, and Peter, the Tunneling
Trout, emerged half out of the with look of
polite his high bred and intelligent face
He did not speak, but it if he said:
Master, am come TO your bidding bowed"
The Wizard smiled and waved his hand. Peter,
seeing that it contained worm, disappeared as
suddenly as he had come. To whom else would a
dumb creature respond like this but Louis Timothy
Stone, the man who made Winsted famousf
Winsted? Yes Winsted, Litchheld county, Connec-
ticut near the foothills of the Berkshie; Wnsted,
the home of the bait retrieving hen of the grateful
woodpecker who saved callow iedgling by a
dairyran remained forever in his service boring holes
in Switzer cheese; Winsted which all the anathe-
mas against taking stirred from its proud
pre-eminence as mart for wondrous tales; Wnsted,
where Puss of the Woods became household pet;
Wnsted home of the biggest frog in the world Win
sted the center from which the tdings of Pro
fessor Pupn's parentless pigs and the duck which
put something aside for a rainy day, Matching rattle
snake eggs for bounty.
ct was thoughtless of me-" observed the Wizard
Of Winsted with sigh, mot to have had worm for
Pete but, unfortunately, became extinct. There
used TO plenty of good bait along the edge of the
little brook there, and fine trout too. The
hens there scratching around for breakfast and
they very successful at first but they real
lied that the fish eating the very choicest and
fattest worms Those trout the greedy that
[ ever saw. They jumped out of to the bank
seized their prey and Topped back again. The hens
saw that two or three times, and day they held
consultation. 1t happened to be pretty bad year for
potato bugs, and my friend was giving them paris
green diet One day the hens helped themselves to
all the poison they could load their beaks and
went down and washed off their mouths In the brook
The paris green, of course, got into the ant
killed off all the fish, as those chicken Borgias in
tended. There have been since, and the hens
having no ideas about conservation ate up all tn.
worm preserves and now there Is hardly any bait
tins place at all"
But you saved Peteri- suggested.
PETERS SIMPLE STORY
Yes, replied the wizard, calmly and deliberately
Pete is a good sort I am much attached to him
You remember my story of the tunneling trout Pete
is subway maker. He got away from the uppei
brook, following hidden watercourse of some kind
may have used mole for tunneling shield, bu
I doubt it. Anyway, Pete arrived with mudd,
in the lower spring where I found him He
has lived here ever since hadnt the heart to drive
him away"
above the water and although Peter did not exactl,
say it. surely none could doubt that he meant
Thank you"
Winsted is grateful to Louis Timothy Stone, fol
before he began his picturesque career as fauna
naturalist for the New York newspapers the towr
was not the map, Pike county had monopol,
and drove hard bargain with the downtrodden Sun
day editors making its stories longer every year anc
insisting special rates for such items as bear
putting up scarecrows to frighten away the bird
nodestly at first and then by slow degrees Loui
Timothy Stone came as the foe of the snake var,
trust and brought life his dependable accounts
the happenings of the New England countryside
Winsted rests in chace of hills and near it ar
the jewels of three lakes which on clear days ar
about are fourishng farms, each connected with th
outside world by long distance telephone and ais
with the sympathetic ear of the Seer. LitchieI
county is whispering gallery him, with the Berk