Connecticut western news., 1914-09-03
THEY GOT NO FISH
But WhelpleY and Stevens Have Exclt-
 ing Experience, Just the Same.

| stevens, or south NOrwRlk. who are rusticating in Canaan for u couple of weeks, chartered steamer belonging to Charles Nelson. Tuesday, for a fishing cruise up the Housatopic river, and with young son of the owner for engineer and captain, cast off and started for the fishing banks just this side of the Ashley Falls line. They were equipped with ample fishing tackle, and Stevens, who had been delegated to dig the bait, assured | Whe'pley that he had dug for two hours, and found the worms mighty small and few in the hill, but he ex- hibited big tin coffee can which, he said, contained all the bait they would probably need.
 | Their vicissitudes began to viciss about the time they were approaching the fishing grounds. The engine began to spit and shutter and finally went out of commission altogether, and of course the boat stopped, in mid-ocean. The young engineer pulled out the gixEling- pin and wiggled the do-funny, but couldn't make the differential diff. They were stuck. Whelpley suggested that Stevens get out and push, but the plumb-line showed 25 feet of water under the boat, and Stevens said his legs wouldn't reach as far down as that, and declined the invitation, whereupon Whelpley proposed to hoist signal of distress and wait for rescue; but young Nelson informed his passengers that they were far from the regular line of marine navigation, and the only craft they were likely to see was Bill Sheldon's stone boat transport ing stumps from an adjacent patch of swamp land.
 Stevens said he didn't care, any way; he had come to fish and he was going to fish. He began rigging his tackle and iointing his pole, and when he was all ready he went for the bait.box, which had been tipped over accident ally, spilling the contents out on the bottom of the boat He paved in the dirt for a few moments, and finally remarked that it was od-gasted funny where all the bait had gone to; but Nelson solved the mystery by volun- teering the information that "the worm that was in that can got away and crawled over the gunwale and dived off into the river, and you won't see him again.
 Whelpley looked responsibility at Stevens and said it seemed as If he might have dug at least two worms, so they could have one piece. This reproof SO affected Stevens that he lost his grip on the fishing tackle, and the whole outfit-hook, line, bob and sinker-went to the bottom of the river.
 After that there was nothing to inter- fere with the work of devising means of extricating themselves from their dilemma. The boy was still monkey ing with the engine, and the engine was still sulky aud refused to make it's wheels go round. The fishermen be. gan to look serious and talk dubiously about the horrors of lingering death by starvation and exhaustion. The boy ceased his tinkering long enough to remind them that, any way, if the engine wouldn't work, all they had to do was to take the oars and row the boat ashore. Whelpley at once frightened up and assumed the part of the drowning man grasping at a straw; but as there was no straw handy he grasped at the oars instead, and pro- ceeded joyously to adjust them in the oar-locks. While he was adjusting one. the other slipped over the edge of the boat and fioated gaily away, out of reach. Stevens made a frantic grab for it. He didn't get it, but he got handful of water and lost his cigar case out of his top pocket. Then he took the remaining oar away from Wheipley, and attempted to "scull" the ship ashore, but lost his balance, and in try ing to recover his equilibrium, let go the oar, and away it went, after it's mate.
 "Now we are lost indeed, v exclaimed Whelpley with an expression of wobe- gone despair, and he made Stevens promise that, when the awful hungry moment should come when it would be necessary to draw cuts, or throw dice, to decide which should be the first to eat the other, he would play fair, and not cheat. Remember, you are not in the South Norwalk Club now, n said he, 'and there must be no funny busi- ness. Stevens promised, and in return made Whelpley promise that if he, (Stevens,) was the one to get stuck, he wouldn't get it in the neck. "I'm awful ticklish, about the neck" he said. But while they were discussing the lugubrious outlook, the young engineer said: Say, if you gents will sit down and keep quiet I'll paddle this thing ashore" And he did that very thing, using his hands as paddles, running the bow up against the bank, where the adventurers disembarked, and walked back to their boarding house, speculating on whether the Nor. walk papers would get hold of the adventure.