ery five that he
caught. The others he kept for bait.

Finally he approached the stream. He paid no attention whatever to me.
He selected a spot almost under me, squatted down upon a flat rock, put
two grasshoppers on his hook, threw it into the stream, and in a very
short time drew out a good six-pound trout. Filled with admiration for
the feat, while he was tying a string through the fish's gills I said to
him, "Muy mahe," which another Indian had told me meant "big trout."
Without looking up or turning his head, he said to me in perfect
English, "What sort of lingo are you giving me, young man? The true
pronunciation of those words is," and then he repeated "Muy mahe," with
just a little twist to his words that I had not given them. Resuming the
conversation he remarked, "Why not speak English? When both parties
understand it, it is much more comfortable. I intended to catch but one
fish, but as you have admired this one, allow me to present it to you
with my compliments." He had turned around now, and held out the
struggling trout, a pleasant smile upon his worn features.

Embarrassed beyond measure, I apologized for attempting to talk to him
in his own language, and accepted the trout. He baited his hook, cast it
into the stream, and in a short time landed a still larger trout.
Without removing it from the hook, he came up the bank to where I was
seated. He laid his fish and rod on the grass, wiped his forehead with
his hand and sat down.

"I never catch more fish, or kill more game than I need for my present
wants," he remarked. "That trout will be ample for my wife and myself
for supper and breakfast, and in fact for all day tomorrow. When he is
gone, I will catch another one."

Then, turning to me, he asked, "From what section of civilization do you
hail?" I told him I was from Los Angeles.

"Ah, Los Angeles," he murmured. "The Queen City of the West and Angel
City of the South. I have read much of your beautiful city, and I have
often thought I would like to visit it and confirm with my own eyes all
I read about it. What a paradise that country must have been for the
Indian before you white men came! I can hardly imagine a land of
perpetual sunshine, a land where the flowers bloom constantly, where
snows never fall. Yes, I would like to go there, but I imagine I never
shall." Then, with an inquiring glance, "What may be your calling?" he
asked.

I told him I was an attorney-at-law.

"A noble profession