.

The fact that Dannie was a Scotchman, and unusually slow and patient,
did not alter the fact that he was just a common human being. The lump
that rose in his throat was so big, and so hard, he did not try to
swallow it. He hurried back into Rainbow Bottom. The first log he came
across he kicked over, and grovelling in the rotten wood and loose
earth with his hands, he brought up a half dozen bluish-white grubs. He
tore up the ground for the length of the log, and then he went to
others, cramming the worms and dirt with them into his pockets. When he
had enough, he went back, and with extreme care placed three of them on
his hook. He tried to see how Jimmy was going to fish, but he could not
tell.

So Dannie decided that he would cast in the morning, fish deep at noon,
and cast again toward evening.

He rose, turned to the river, and lifted his rod. As he stood looking
over the channel, and the pool where the Bass homed, the Kingfisher
came rattling down the river, and as if in answer to its cry, the Black
Bass gave a leap, that sent the water flying.

"Ready!" cried Dannie, swinging his pole over the water.

As the word left his lips, "whizz," Jimmy's minnow landed in the middle
of the circles widening about the rise of the Bass. There was a rush
and a snap, and Dannie saw the jaws of the big fellow close within an
inch of the minnow, and he swam after it for a yard, as Jimmy slowly
reeled in. Dannie waited a second, and then softly dropped his grubs on
the water just before where he figured the Bass would be. He could hear
Jimmy smothering oaths. Dannie said something himself as his untouched
bait neared the bank. He lifted it, swung it out, and slowly trailed it
in again. "Spat!" came Jimmy's minnow almost at his feet, and again the
Bass leaped for it. Again he missed. As the minnow reeled away the
second time, Dannie swung his grubs higher, and struck the water
"Spat," as the minnow had done. "Snap," went the Bass. One instant the
line strained, the next the hook came up stripped clean of bait.

Then Dannie and Jimmy really went at it, and they were strangers. Not a
word of friendly banter crossed the river. They cast until the Bass
grew suspicious, and would not rise to the bait; then they fished deep.
Then they cast again. If Jimmy fell into trouble with his reel, Dannie
had the honesty to stop fishing until it worked again, but he spent the
time burrowing for grubs until his hands resembled the claws of a