d out into the lake Kedgeemakoogee,
the lake of the fairies--a broad expanse of black water, dotted with
green islands, and billowing white in the afternoon wind, and just as we
rounded I felt a sudden tug at the end of my line which was trailing out
behind the canoe.

In an instant I was alive. Del cautioned me softly from the stern, for
there is no guide who does not wish his charge to acquit himself well.

"Easy now--easy," he said. "That's a good one--don't hurry him."

But every nerve in me began to tingle--every drop of blood to move
faster. I was eaten with a wild desire to drag my prize into the boat
before he could escape. Then all at once it seemed to me that my line
must be fast, the pull was so strong and fixed. But looking out behind,
Del saw the water break just then--a sort of double flash.

"Good, you've got a pair," he said. "Careful, now, and we'll save 'em
both."

To tell the truth I had no hope of saving either, and if I was careful I
didn't feel so. When I let the line go out, as I was obliged to, now and
then, to keep from breaking it altogether, I had a wild, hopeless
feeling that I could never take it up again and that the prize was just
that much farther away. Whenever there came a sudden slackening I was
sickened with a fear that the fish were gone, and ground the reel handle
feverishly. Fifty yards away the other canoe, with Eddie in the bow, had
struck nothing as yet, and if I could land these two I should be one
ahead on the score. It seems now a puny ambition, but it was vital then.
I was no longer cold, or hot, or afraid of malaria, or mosquitoes, or
anything of the sort. Duties more or less important at home were
forgotten. I was concerned only with those two trout that had fastened
to my flies, the Silver Doctor and the Parmcheenie Belle, out there in
the black, tossing water, and with the proper method of keeping my line
taut, but not too taut, easy, but not too easy, with working the prize
little by little within reach of the net. Eddie, suddenly seeing my
employment, called across congratulations and encouragement. Then,
immediately, he was busy too, with a fish of his own, and the sport, the
great, splendid sport of the far north woods, had really begun.

I brought my catch near the boatside at last, but it is no trifling
matter to get two trout into a net when they are strung out on a
six-foot leader, with the big trout on the top fly. Reason dictates that
the end trout should