The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-21
THE EVENING STORY
Brother Tom Did It.
(By Clara Inez Deacon.)


mile down the highway he would come
to Diamond river.
That sounded good to begin with.
Most people connect diamonds with
fish. They do so because it is posi-
BILE to earn two diamonds saving wood
while catching one at fishing.
| When Mr.. Richmond had reached Ivy
bridge he was to follow the stream
down about quarter of mile and
j he would come to boss place for bass.
Good again There was something
catchy about the name of Ivy bridge.
1t must have ivy climbing over it or
! it would not be so named. Wherever
there is ivy there is romance.
/ Mr.. Richmond followed his nose and
found Ivy bridge. Yes, there was ivy
there. And there was Diamond river.
Down the stream went Mr.. Richmond
and he soon found the spot he had been
directed to. 1t was a deep pool in a
! bend, and in that pool lay untold mil
lions of fish ready to make fools of
themselves and be flopped to the bank.
It was a narrow river, and just above
the pool was an old log spanning the
stream. That log was an ideal place
to fish from.
Young Mr.. Richmond was cookbook
ing, had a rich father and was a crack
erjack at football, but he should have
, taken lessons from Sherlock Holmes as
to observation. Under tree at the end
of the bridge was a pony with
lady's saddle on his back The young
man did not eevn notice him.
At the foot of the tree stood a lunch
basket and some spare fishing tackle.
Those things signified that the female
had come prepared to catch all the fish
in the pool, no matter if it took her all
day.
Sherlock would have reasoned it out
that only young ladies ride horseback.
That only interesting girls ever fish.
That a lone young lady, fishing in a
lone spot, would be glad of the pres
ence of lone young man after she had
sized him up as 0. x.
That such meetings had led to happy
matrimony, and might again.
That the fraterna1 bond between them
as fishermen would certainly induce her
to invite him to partake of the con-
tents of that lunch basket.
No. The young man had eyes for |
the pool alone, and he am-banged
along and got his tackle ready and
walked out on the log. Indeed, he had
been fishing for five minutes when he
was forced to observe that there was
another present. It was a girl and she
sat on the bank partly screened by a
coughed and Mr.. Richmond looked up
and gave start She didn't cough to
attract his attention, but because she
had a frog in her throat
After spreading his feet wide apart. !
Mr.. Richmond got a proper balance and .
off with his cap.
The girl stared at him.
is it good fishing here?"
No answer.
Caught any yet ??
No answer in words, but she pulled
in a two-pound bass.
That's ffne-that's finer
If he didn't see her lip curl in con-
tempt he was mistaken.
Perhaps he was a treSpaSser. Fer
haps her father owned Diamond river,
and she resented the intrusion
IF I am trespasser-
The girl looked at him without the
flicker of an eyelid
you say so and I'll co.
She didn't say so. She didn't say
anything.
Bound to freeze me OUT thought the
young man, t'but I don't propose to go
unless she changes her attitude. It's
a cold bluff she is making, and it won't
work.
It's simply question in physical Gull
ture Can a young man standing on
half-slippery log over a stream take
as much comfort and stand it as long
as girl seated on the grassy bank of
the same stream? The answer is not
by jugfui!
In half hour the young man began
to tire and his knees to wobble. He
must stand just so. Not for thou
sand dollars would he go ashore and
pass the girl who was scorning him,
and the other bank was a marsh. And
to add gall to the situation he wasn't
catching a fish. He wasn't getting the
faintest kind of a nibble, while every
two or three minutes the girl was bank
ing a fine fish. She kept him in torture
for an hour and a half, and then rose
I'D and strolled to the bridge and sat
down to her lunch.
Mr. Richmond almost crawled ashore
aching in every bone, and as soon as
his legs had limbered up he set off for
the hotel. He had been Inundated into
the dust and he would have revenge.
He did not plan much He was at the
pool an hour earlier next morning. The
girl might not come, but if she did she
would find him on the bank and she
might take the log.
Behold, she was on hand and had al
ready landed three fish Mr.. Rich
mond passed the girl without the slight
est notice, and began humm1ng gay
air as he cast in his hook
There were fish there for the young
man. It was hardly minute before
he had an awful bite. The programme
in fishing is to pun upon your line
when YOU have a bite. Mr.. Richmond
pulled up and he came within shade
of tum bling off the log as he disturbed
his balance Also, the fish Topped
around and got away Il
Did the young man hear a gigglei
from, the bank, or was 1t the chatter of
q squirrel in one of the beech trees?
Thereafter the fish had an easy timei
of IL. If they seized the bait they werei
permitted banquet on 1t. Not for a
have taken a tumble in the presence
Of that handsome but scornful girl. He
vf,istIed and he hun1med. He ached
and he softly cussed. Now and tflenl
he looked over her head at the land
scape beyond, which consisted mostly
of dead tree and a crow looking
down upon him from one of the skele-
ton limbs. Now and then she looked