ly across a little pond juist below Winchester. I
believe they go south slowly, as the cold drives them, and stop near as
they can find guid fishing. Dinna that stump look lonely wi'out him?"

"And sound lonely without the Bass slashing around! I am going to have
that Bass this summer if I don't do a thing but fish!" vowed Jimmy.

"I'll surely have a try at him," answered Dannie, with a twinkle in his
gray eyes. "We've caught most everything else in the Wabash, and our
reputation fra taking guid fish is ahead of any one on the river,
except the Kingfisher. Why the Diel dinna one of us haul out that Bass?"

"Ain't I just told you that I am going to hook him this summer?"
shivered Jimmy.

"Dinna ye hear me mention that I intended to take a try at him mysel'?"
questioned Dannie. "Have ye forgotten that I know how to fish?"

"'Nough breeze to-day without starting a Highlander," interposed Jimmy
hastily. "I believe I hear a rat in my next trap. That will make me
twilve, and it's good and glad of it I am for I've to walk to town when
my line is reset. There's something Mary wants."

"If Mary wants ye to go to town, why dinna ye leave me to finish your
traps, and start now?" asked Dannie. "It's getting dark, and if ye are
so late ye canna see the drifts, ye never can cut across the fields;
fra the snow is piled waist high, and it's a mile farther by the road."

"I got to skin my rats first, or I'll be havin' to ask credit again,"
replied Jimmy.

"That's easy," answered Dannie. "Turn your rats over to me richt noo.
I'll give ye market price fra them in cash."

"But the skinnin' of them," objected Jimmy for decency sake, though his
eyes were beginning to shine and his fingers to tremble.

"Never ye mind about that," retorted Dannie. "I like to take my time to
it, and fix them up nice. Elivin, did ye say?"

"Elivin," answered Jimmy, breaking into a jig, supposedly to keep his
feet warm, in reality because he could not stand quietly while Dannie
pulled off his mittens, got out and unstrapped his wallet, and
carefully counted out the money. "Is that all ye need?" he asked.

For an instant Jimmy hesitated. Missing a chance to get even a few
cents more meant a little shorter time at Casey's. "That's enough, I
think," he said. "I wish I'd staid out of matrimony, and then maybe I
could iver have a cint of me own. You ought to be glad you haven't a
woman to consume ivery penny you earn before it reaches your pockets,
Dannie