The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1922-03-31
A Delightful Day
(By Rev. George II. DeKay)

l. NlOlC Llo WIG ia llt Tau iiAh
a delightful days fishing, and when
he reached home again she asked him
just what he meant by that. This
is what he told her.
You get up at four o'clock in the
morning, just a. the first flush of
dawn is showing over the hills. A
robin is already fitting from tree to
tree, greeting the new day with a
shrill note that the man in the cabin
on the water claim says is his re-
gular alarm clock, unfa4ing at four
o'clock every morning. Your shoes
and socks are still wet from the
tramp last night when you forded the
brook, but on they go, and you strap
up your leggins while the boy strug-
giles to beat you to it,. You pack a
big knap-sack with grub and camp
outfit and strap it to your back while
the boy carries the fish-poles and bas-
kets.
1T rained in the night and every
little bush that you brush by, and
every big n that you go under,
showers you with silver drops that
seem some way better than anything
else you ever saw. There's a won
derful sweetness and freshness in the
air, and the boy asks you if you notice
the smell OF the wildness'. The trail
mot of the lonesome pine, but OF the.
many pines) winds down the sides OF
the rock-ribbed and rugged canyon,
now crossing and recrossing the little
brook that hurries away to help make
the big river below. You reach the
river just as the first rays of the sun
are glinting on the high ranges. Far
to the east the Dardanelles are stand
ing out against the sky, white with
their eternal SHOWS, while nothward
Silver Peak shows a faint flush of de-
licate pink, and all around are lesser
peaks of wonderful blue, and on the
nearby hills is such green as you
never imagined before. Just the
right time for the trout, you decide,
and you're glad you didn't wait any
longer.
Leaving the outfit by a big rock
under a pine tree, you start the de-
lightful days fishing. For more than
a mile the river runs clear and invit-
ing. There are wonderful falls where
the water m down like it used to
In the old McGuffy's reader when you
were a boy and it told about the
waters at Lodore,. Uuder these falls
are deep pools with overhanging
rocks and fallen logs, and you know
the trout are there. You are not
long getting ready for them, and sure
enough in a moment the boy calls out
I've got him!' and you cheer him for
making first score
Then you go along down stream,
trying the pools, the rifles, the ra-
pids and the shadows; up and down
over and in, wet feet and wet shirt
forgotten in the very joy of just being
there. The phone may ring all day,
but you won't hear it, and the
mail may be heavy with important
letters, but they'll have to wait, for
you're having a vacation. While you
are trying to get your line untangled
from an overhanging bush you spy a
curious nest lying on a ledge of rock
where no animal or snake could pos
sibly reach it, and looking like a
bunch of moss. 1t is the nest of the
water ouzel, that CHEEKY little chap of
the big mountains that John Muir
says he has never found toe cold or
wet or afraid to sing as he goes dash
ing along the streams, into and under
the falls and the pools, in search of
his food. One flew past you a few
minutes before, and he's singing now
en- that old branch over there.
Something wriggles at your feet
and you jump back from a big rat
tier. His nine rattles are very soon
off his tail and in your pocket. Out
of that long rifle m a big ten
inch rainbow trout hat slips off the
hook just as you get him over that
shallow little pool, and you and the
boy both make a dash for him and
catch him, a second time, in your
hands, just as he makes for the tiny
outlet by the stones. You jump for
a rock near by and the water comes
up to your knees.
Ten o'clock and you gather
at the place appointed for breakfast.
Now for the catch! Basket are open
ed and you lay them out on thegrass,
wet, shiny, speckled beauties and
brilliant rainbows, eight and ten in
ches long, thirty of them in all. You
soon have a campfire going, with
trout and bacon sending a fragrance
that is as incense to the hungry ones
who gather around, all too ready to
eat. Beans potatoes, onions Draw, oil
course), bread, coffee and a can OF
: ~ninaann1p from far-aNaU Hawaii the