Year: 1876

There's generally about six Of them in
the bunch, with light dresses on, and
they have three poles with as many
hooks and lines among them.
AS soon as they get to the river they
look for a good place to get down on the
RATS, and the most venturesome one
sticks her boot heels in the bank and
makes two careful steps down; then she
suddenly finds herself at the bottom
with both hands in the water and feel.
ing that everybody in this wide world is
looking at her. and she never tells any.
body how she got there. The other girls
profiting by her example, turn around
and go down the bank on their hands
and toes, backwards.
Then they scamper over the RATS until
they find a shallow place where they can
see the fish and shout


"0hl / see one"
"WhereY
There"


"Ohl my, so he is"


Lets catch him"


Whose got them baitsT


Somebody's got my hook"


You lazy thing you're sitting on my
pole"


"Show me the wretch that stole my
worm"


All these exclamations are gotten off
in a tone that awakened every lazy echo
within a mile round, and sent every fish
within three acres square into galloping
Mysteries. Then the girls by superhu-
man exertions went to get a worm on
the hook and throw in" with a splash
like the launching Of a wash-tub, and
await the result When a silver-fn
comes along and nibbles the bait they
pull up with jerk that, had an unfor-
tunate fish weighing less than fifteen
pounds been on the hook, would have
landed it in the neighboThood Of three
or four miles out in the country. After
a while feeble minded sunfish contrives
to get fastened on the hook Of a timid
fisher-woman and she gives tongue:


"0hl something's got my hook"


Pull up, you little idiotp shout FIVE
excited voices as poles and hooks are
dropped and they rush to the rescue.
The girl with the bite gives a spasmodic
jerk, which sends the unhappy sunny"
into the air the full length OF forty feet
of line, and he comes down on the near
est curly head with damp flop. that sets
the girl to clawing as though there were
bumblebees in her hair.


"Och Murderl take il away. Ugh the
nasty thingr


Then they hold up their skirts and
gather about that fish as it skips over the
logs, one all the time holding the line in
both hands, with her foot on the pole,
as though she had an evil-disposed goat
at the other end, which she expected to
butt her at any moment. Then they
talk over il.


How ever will we get it OFF,


"Ain't it prettyT


Look how it pants"


Wonder il il amt dTyT


Poor little thing, let's put it back"


How will we get the hook from itf'


Pick il up" says a girl who backs rap
idly out of the circle.


Good gracious, I'm afraid of il. There
it's opening its mouth at me"


just then the sunny wriggles off the
hook and disappears between two logs
into the water and the girls try for an
other bite.


But the sun comes down and fries the
backs Of their necks, and they get no
more bites but fly bites. and they get
three headaches in the party and they
all get cross and scold at the fish like so
many magpies. If any unwary club
dares show himself in the water they
poke at him with their poles, much TO
his disgust Finally they get mad all
over and throw their poles away, hunt
up the lunch basket, climb up into the
woods, where they sit around on the
grass and caterpillars and eat enough OF
dried beef and rusk and hard boiled eggs
to give a wood horse the nightmare, after
which they compare notes about their
beaux until sundown. when they go
home and plant envy in the heart Of all
their muslin-delain friends by telling
what Just a splendid time they had.