Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island | Page 2

while Frank Ellery was more or less all in a bunch, as Jerry said, who was himself sturdily put together. Dave Thomas was neither as tall as Tod nor as stocky as Frank; He looked undersized, in fact. But his "red hair and readier tongue," his friends declared, more than made up for any lack of size. At any rate, no one ever offered a second time to carry the heaviest end of the load.
Now, as they walked along through the back streets of Watertown, rightly named as it was in the midst of lakes, creeks and rivers, they began a discussion that never grew old with them. Tod began it.
"We've got plenty of worms, for once."
"Good!" cried Dave. "I've thought of a dandy scheme, but it'd take a pile of bait."
"What's that?" asked Jerry, suspecting mischief.
"You know, you can stretch out a worm to about three inches. Tie about a hundred together--allow an inch apiece for the knot--that would make two hundred inches, or say seventeen feet. Put the back end of the line about a foot up on the bank and the other end out in the water. Along comes a carp--the only fish that eats _worms_--and starts eating. He gets so excited following up his links of worm- weenies, that he doesn't notice he's up on shore, when suddenly Tod Fulton, mighty fisherman, grabs him by the tail and flips him----"
"Yes--where does he flip him?" Tod had dropped his share of the luggage and now had Dave by the back of the neck.
"Back into the water and makes him eat another string of worms as punishment for being a carp."
"You with your old dead minnows!" exclaimed Tod, giving Dave a push that sent him staggering. "Last time we went, all you caught was a dogfish and one starved bullhead. There's more real fish that'll bite on worms than on any other bait. I've taken trout and even black bass. Early in the morning I can land pickerel and croppies where a minnow or a frog could sleep on the end of a six pounder's nose. Don't tell me."
"Yes," put in Jerry, "and I can sit right between the two of you and with my number two Skinner and a frog or a bacon rind pull 'em out while you fellows go to sleep between nibbles."
"Bully!" exclaimed Frank. "Every time we go home after a trip, you hang a sign on your back: 'Fish for Sale,' with both s's turned backwards. I'm too modest to mention the name of the boy who caught the largest black bass ever hooked in Plum Run, but I can tell you the kind of fly the old boy took, all the same."
"Testimony's all in," laughed Tod, good-humoredly. "And here we are at the dock of the 'Big Four.'"
"Yes, and there goes Porter up around the bend. We row our boat to- day. We ought to get up a show or something and raise enough money to buy a motor."
"I move we change our plans and leave Round Lake for another trip." It was lazy Frank who made the proposal.
"What difference does it make to you? You never row anyway. Plum Run's too high for anything but still fishing----"
"I saw Hunky Doran coming back from Parry's Dam day before yesterday and he had a dandy string."
"Sure. He always does. Bet you he dopes his bait," declared Tod.
"Well, you spit on the worm yourself. The dam isn't half as far as Dead Tree, and, besides, we can always walk across to Grass Lake. Jerry votes for the dam, don't you, Jerry?"
But Jerry only shrugged his shoulders. Frank and Tod always disagreed on fishing places, largely because their styles of angling were different and consequently a good place for one was the poorest place in the world for the other. So Jerry, who usually was the peacemaker, said nothing but unlocked the padlock which secured the boat, tossed the key-ring to Dave with, "Open the boathouse and get two pair of oars. Tod, take a squint at the sun--five-thirty, isn't it? An hour and a half to the Dead Tree, and an hour more to Round Lake. What kind of fish can you take in old Roundy after eight o'clock?"
"Oh, I knew we were going to the dam, all right. I give in. But if I've got to go where I don't want to, I'm going to have the boat to fish from."
"As if you didn't always have it!" snorted Frank. "The only one who fishes in one place all day, but he's got to have the boat--and forgets himself and walks right off it the minute he gets a real bite. Huh!"
Tod paid no attention to this insult. He and Jerry settled in their places at the oars, with Frank at the stern for