CHAPTER V
Said the fat white grub to the new spoon hook, With a cynical smile and a scornful look: "Pray accept my very best wishes. It is true you dazzle their eyes, I suppose, But the fact remains, as every one knows, That I am the food for fishes."
--_Lay of the Minstrel Pike._
Toots sat on the smooth top of a boulder on the river bank, gazing deepdown into the pool at his feet. The pool was shaded by the overhangingbranches of a cottonwood tree. The warm air was filled with thefragrance of the country. It had painted the boy's cheeks a healthybrown, and caused him to thrill with a sense of strength that was newand delightful. The good surgeon's promise was fulfilled; Toots' legwas now as straight as that of any boy, and no longer was it burdenedby the weight of iron straps. Concerning the iron straps he had justone regret; when he returned to his friends, the Menial People, wouldMahmoud be able to recognize him, thus bereft of those symbols oftheir affinity? He would soon know, for he and the Princess--whoseguest Toots was at her father's country home during the period of hisconvalescence--were to return in a few days.
Near where Toots sat, the Princess played beside a little brookthat gurgled over its bed of cobble-stones. She was amusing herselfpoking the end of a stick under the stones in the bed of the brook.Occasionally a crawfish would dart out backward, glare at her savagelywith its beady eyes and snap its clumsy claws at the stick, whereuponthe Princess would utter a ladylike little shriek and retire toanother part of the brook. Suddenly she clapped her hands and exclaimed:
"Oh, here comes Reginald!"
The Princess ran to meet a trim, precise looking young man in a linenhelmet, canvas coat and trousers and a pair of high boots, who wascoming down the steep bank with a beautiful new rod and reel on hisshoulder. Slung across the other shoulder was a large bag. This was toput his fish in--when he had caught them. Toots never moved from hisseat on the boulder.
"Now, if you children will keep quiet," said Reginald, as he fastened abrilliant contrivance of scarlet feathers and glittering silver on theend of his slender silken line, "we shall have fried pike for supper."
"I'd rather have pickerel, if you please," said Toots.
Suddenly the Princess exclaimed: "Oh, here comesReginald!"]
"Pickerel never bite at this time of day," answered Reginald, withauthority. He stepped to the water's edge, where the brook enteredthe river, and raised his rod. Swish! went the delicate bit of bamboothrough the air, the reel whizzed and the silken line shot far downthe stream. When the glittering bauble at its end struck the water,Reginald wound up the reel slowly, anxiously watching the tip of therod. Toots and the Princess looked on in silence, the Princess becauseof her admiration for the natty figure, and Toots out of politeness.But the boy had small respect for Reginald's abilities as afisherman. Farmer John, with his crooked old pole and grubs for bait,was Toots' ideal in the fishing line. Besides, John had told him aboutthe Pickerel Family whose home was in this same pool.
Yes, John's story must be quite true, for now as he turned his gazefrom the unprofitable fisherman back to the pool, Toots was surehe could see shadowy figures floating in and out among the rocks.Certainly there was Grandfather Pickerel, the patriarch of the family.Toots could see him now quite plainly. He was having a domesticdiscussion with two other pickerel who bore a strong family resemblanceto him.
"They must be Father and Mother Pickerel," thought Toots.
Darting about near by, Toots could see the whole brood of youngpickerels. They were of all sizes, from Big Brother Pickerel, who wasnearly as large as his father, down to Baby Pickerel, who was hardlylarger than a minnow. Suddenly Toots realized that something of unusualimportance was going on at the bottom of the pool, for as his eyesgrew more accustomed to the wavering lights and shadows in the water,he could see, swimming about in the near neighborhood of the PickerelFamily, a whole troop of collateral relations. He recognized UnclePike by his fierce look and by the way he ordered the other relationsabout. Toots knew Aunt Bass by her plump figure and the bright silversuit she wore. She was swimming here and there, conversing amiablywith everybody. Miss Catfish, a distant and poor relation, waslingering modestly in the background. Nobody seemed to be paying anyattention to her except Big Brother Pickerel, who kept edging over inher direction, only to be pursued, reprimanded and driven back to theinner family circle by Mother Pickerel. Toots felt that revelations ofthe utmost significance were impending. He hardly dared to breathe.Just then his observations were interrupted by the shrill voice of thePrincess: "Toots! Toots! John's coming!"
This was different. Toots scrambled down from the boulder and ran tomeet the big man with the tattered straw hat who was approaching withhis crooked fish-pole on his shoulder. In one hand John carried a rustyoyster can which appeared to be full of dirt. Toots stuck his fingersinto the dirt and brought something white to the surface.
"They're grubs," he exclaimed delightedly. "Now we _shall_ have friedpickerel for supper."
Reginald was reeling in his line. His face wore a look of discontent.
"Don't seem to have much appetite for red feathers to-day, do they?"said John, as he stuck a grub on his hook and dropped it into the pool.
Reginald muttered something between his teeth, and walked towardthe rock where the Princess was standing. She gave him a look ofconsolation. Toots was clambering up beside her. It was a good placefrom which to watch John.
"Go away," said the Princess, drawing her short skirts about her. "Goaway; you smell of grubs."
But she held out her hand to Reginald and smiled on him in her mostfascinating manner. Toots went and stood by the side of John. At thatmoment the big man gave a sharp tug at the crooked pole, and a shiningpickerel over a foot long lay flopping on the stones. Toots viewed thefish at close range with bulging eyes, and said:
"Why, I know him. It's the father of the little pickerels."
"That so?" said John, sticking another grub on his hook and dropping itinto the pool again. "Well, we'll eat him fried for supper just thesame."
Toots' lip quivered. "Where will the little pickerels get anotherfather?" he asked.
"They don't need any," said John. "Grandfather Pickerel will look afterthem. He's a wise old chap. Nobody's going to get a chance to fry himin a hurry. I've hooked him half a dozen times, but I've never had achance to fry him yet."
"Did he get away?" asked Toots.
"Well, I should say he did. You never see more than the tip of the oldsinner's nose. When he's given you a glimpse of that, he bites off theline and flops back into his hole."
Toots reflected for several moments, and then inquired: "What becomesof the hook, John?"
"Oh, he swallows the hook," answered the big man, testily. "Hisstomach must be half full of old iron by this time."
This was an interesting situation. Toots turned it over in his mindslowly. Presently his attention was diverted by an exclamation fromJohn.
"Durn his skin!" the big man was saying. "Blest if I don't believe I'vegot him again!"
John's line was being dragged frantically about in the pool. The polebent and splashed in the water. The big man's hat came off. Reginaldand the Princess interrupted their flirtation to join Toots beside thepool.
"Out of the way, you folks!" shouted John. "Give me room. I'm going toland the old sinner this time, or know the reason why."
All at once the crooked pole snapped in two, and John fell backwardwith his heels in the air. The next instant he had dashed into thepool up to his shoulders, and seized the small end of the pole, towhich the line was attached.
"Reel him in, why don't you?" sang out Reginald, laughing.
"Reel nothing," said John, wrathfully, from the middle of the pool."The only way to get this fish out is to jump on his back and ride himout."
John concluded to compromise by leading him out. He had wound severalyards of the line about his arm, and was wading toward the shore. The
fish was suspiciously quiet. The big man stepped out of the water anddrew in the line, hand over hand. Toots could see the dim outlines ofthe fish as he allowed himself to be drawn toward the water's edge.Suddenly he clapped his hands and cried out gleefully:
"I know him! I know him! It's Grandfather Pickerel."
"So do I know him," said John. "Just you wait till I get my hands onhim."
At length Grandfather Pickerel's long, sharp nose appeared above thewater. The big man stepped back ready for one long, strong pull at theright instant. The wary old fish opened his lean jaws to their fullwidth, and brought them together with a vicious snap. It was at exactlythe right moment. Once more John lay on his back with his heels inthe air, while Grandfather Pickerel glided with much dignity into thedepths of the pool.
"Now, if you had had my rod and reel," said Reginald, "you could have--"
"Your rod and reel be durned," said John, as he picked up the fishlying on the stones, and started up the bank with it. "If ever that oldsinner gets hold of your rod and reel, he'll make toothpicks of 'em."
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