ish with that, there will be all the more glory
in taking the Bass from him with the pole I have," answered Dannie.

"You keep out," cried Jimmy angrily to Mary. "It was a fair bargain. He
made it himself. Each man was to fish surface or deep, and with his own
pole and bait. I guess this IS my pole, ain't it?"

"Yes," said Mary. "But it wasn't yours whin you made that agreemint.
You very well know Dannie expected you to fish with the same kind of
pole and bait that he did; didn't you, Dannie?"

"Yes," said Dannie, "I did. Because I never dreamed of him havin' any
other. But since he has it, I think he's in his rights if he fishes
with it. I dinna care. In the first place he will only scare the Bass
away from him with the racket that reel will make, and in the second,
if he tries to land it with that thing, he will smash it, and lose the
fish. There's a longhandled net to land things with that goes with
those rods. He'd better sent ye one. Now you'll have to jump into the
river and land a fish by hand if ye hook it."

"That's true!" cried Mary. "Here's one in a picture."

She had snatched the book from Jimmy. He snatched it back.

"Be careful, you'll tear that!" he cried. "I was just going to say that
I would get some fine wire or mosquito bar and make one."

Dannie's fingers were itching to take the rod, if only for an instant.
He looked at it longingly. But Jimmy was impervious. He whipped it
softly about and eagerly read from the book.

"Tells here about a man takin' a fish that weighed forty pounds with a
pole just like this," he announced. "Scat! Jumpin' Jehosophat! What do
you think of that!"

"Couldn't you fish turn about with it?" inquired Mary.

"Na, we couldna fish turn about with it," answered Dannie. "Na with
that pole. Jimmy would throw a fit if anybody else touched it. And he's
welcome to it. He never in this world will catch the Black Bass with
it. If I only had some way to put juist fifteen feet more line on my
pole, I'd show him how to take the Bass to-morrow. The way we always
have come to lose it is with too short lines. We have to try to land it
before it's tired out and it's strong enough to break and tear away. It
must have ragged jaws and a dozen pieces of line hanging to it, fra
both of us have hooked it time and again. When it strikes me, if I only
could give it fifteen feet more line, I could land it."

"Can't you fix some way?" asked Mary.

"I'll try," answered Dannie.

"And in t