The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-06-04
Some Fall
Fishing
~
BY c. b. LEWIS
Copyright, 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa
per Syndicate.)
BY c. b. LEWIS

Gertie Ashford to stay In the country
as long as she could, on account uf
the state of her throat, and that was
why she was yet at her grandmoth-
er's when mid-September came.
1t hadn't been very lively summer
for the girl. She had taken long
walks. She had fused with the old
! fashioned flowers; she had sought In
vain to win the confidence of the
Chipmunks and rabbits which came
about, and she had hunted for quails'
nests In the wheat fields. There was
one sport, however, she had not par
ticipated In. There was a creek me-
nndering its way over the country aud
crossing the highway few rods be-
low the house, and in that creek were
fish Mt least as long as her finger. She
knew 1t, because she had seen them,
and because a neighbours boy twelve
years old had told her:
"Why, of course there are fish
slathers and slathers of 'em, and they
ARE achin' to be cotched, jest as a cat
= aches for cream. Haven't hauled out
more'n a hundred this summer"
"But 1 was taught in Sunday school
that 1t was wicked to catch fish," was
protested.
"Humph! Would we have Goldfish
cakes If folks didn't go a-fishin'?"
The boy rigged up line and pole
for her, and Miss Gertie went fishing.
He stood on the bank with her for a
while to advise:
"Now, lower your hook !"
Now, stop wohbling the pole!"
Nov, don't you dare breatheW
G NOW, shet you eyes and say your
SQyayers, for there's a fish as long. as
Ta1rail comm for your hook"
VWhen half an hour had passed and
TIM fisher hadn't had nibble yet, the
boy wandered away In disgust. At
theiepd of the second half-hour Miss
Gdrtie said to herself:
know why 1 don't have any luck.
1tSbecause the FISH can see me. TIL
play a trick on them"
Thereupon she stuck the end Of the
pole into the bank and left the hook
to do its own fishing while she retired
to the house for q rest. Ferrers
Yorke, the author and artist, was
planning new story. The opening
chapters would tell of meadow, a
brook. bridge and pretty girl. and
the girl would be fishing In that brook.
The author was great on local color,
and he had come out into the country
TO md the spot THAI another would
have to Imagine. He was quite sure
that he could find all but the girl with
fishEole In her hands, and there was
zone chafce in thousand that he
mil Aa1 hn- h,,
two or Jthree brooks, bridges and
{: :smeadowd when his search brought him
to the yfY'vs opposite to where Ger
tie stood.
Z raSA young man would have
stalked OF of the bushes with a hello
an2sRhse of his hat, and waded the
hZ4bk and asked how many fish had
(. 4$8en caught, and how many had got
Away. Mr.. Yorke was not rash. He
o I'd not betray his presence among the
>9Fillows. Not that he was a spy by
=. nature. but that, having found his
: heroine, he must study her bit.
The heroine of a story must have
-auburn hair which the sunshine turns
to gold.
She must have neck like a swan,
'though not as long.
She must have a Grecian nose-not
the sort you see around the Greek
restaurants of New York, but one
made to order In Athens and sent on
packed In pink cotton.
Her eyes must be like stars. The
stars worn by cOnstables are ex-
cluded from the contest.
Her form must be divine, which
means 1t must not be nodded on the
lines of a sack of -four.
She must have twlnkltng feet.
She should sing as she fished.
Did the girl across the creek from
fthe artist fill the bill2 Yes. and more.
.She was a sylph-a hOuri-an angel.
With her for a heroine that story
would go like buckwheat cakes on a
winters morning. Even when she be-
scame discouraged about the fish and
turned away with shrug of her
shoulders, he was delighted with the
:shrug.
An artist and an author has two
souls, as we all know. One Is dream
soul, and can hear the whispers of the
angels with every breeze that blows
through a patch Of bull-thistles-the
other gives him a proper appetite for
boiled dinner.
When Mr.. Yorke had looked upon
Gertie with one soul, he laid Ii aside
to look with the other. The girl went
away, but she would return. She
would confidently expect to find some
thing on her hook. If there was not
victim she would be disappointed.