Fishin Jimmy | Page 7

be Christians," he said, looking, with tears in his soft,
keen eyes, at the every-day scene, and with no faintest thought of
irreverence. "I never knowed it, but I'd give a stiffikit o' membership in

the orthodoxest church goin' to that dog there."
It is almost needless to say that as years went on Jimmy came to know
many "fishin' min'sters;" for there are many of that school who know
our mountain country, and seek it yearly. All these knew and loved the
old man. And there were others who had wandered by that sea of
Galilee, and fished in the waters of the Holy Land, and with them
Fishin' Jimmy dearly loved to talk. But his wonder was never-ending
that, in the scheme of evangelizing the world, more use was not made
of the "fishin' side" of the story. "Haint they ever tried it on them poor
heathen?" he would ask earnestly of some clerical angler casting a fly
upon the clear water of pond or brook. "I should think 't would 'a' ben
the fust thing they 'd done. Fishin' fust, an' r'liging 's sure to foller. An'
it 's so easy; fur heath'n mostly r'sides on islands, don't they? So ther 's
plenty o' water, an' o' course ther 's fishin'; an' oncet gin 'em poles an'
git 'em to work, an' they 're out o' mischief fur that day. They 'd like it
better 'n cannib'ling, or cuttin' out idles, or scratchin' picters all over
theirselves, an' bimeby--not too suddent, ye know, to scare 'em--ye
could begin on that story, an' they could n't stan' that, not a heath'n on
'em. Won't ye speak to the 'Merican Board about it, an' sen' out a few
fishin' mishneries, with poles an' lines an' tackle gen'ally? I 've tried it
on dreffle bad folks, an' it alters done 'em good. But"--so almost all his
simple talk ended--"I wish I could begin to be a fisher o' men. I 'm
gettin' on now, I 'm nigh seventy, an' I aint got much time, ye see."
One afternoon in July there came over Franconia Notch one of those
strangely sudden tempests which sometimes visit that mountain country.
It had been warm that day, unusually warm for that refreshingly cool
spot; but suddenly the sky grew dark and darker, almost to blackness,
there was roll of thunder and flash of lightning, and then poured down
the rain--rain at first, but soon hail in large frozen bullets, which
fiercely pelted any who ventured outdoors, rattled against the windows
of the Profile House with sharp cracks like sounds of musketry, and lay
upon the piazza in heaps like snow. And in the midst of the wild storm
it was remembered that two boys, guests at the hotel, had gone up
Mount Lafayette alone that day. They were young boys, unused to
mountain climbing, and their friends were anxious. It was found that

Dash had followed them; and just as some one was to be sent in search
of them, a boy from the stables brought the information that Fishin'
Jimmy had started up the mountain after them as the storm broke. "Said
if he could n't be a fisher o' men, mebbe he knowed nuff to ketch boys,"
went on our informant, seeing nothing more in the speech, full of
pathetic meaning to us who knew him, than the idle talk of one whom
many considered "lackin'." Jimmy was old now, and had of late grown
very feeble, and we did not like to think of him out in that wild storm.
And now suddenly the lost boys themselves appeared through the
opening in the woods opposite the house, and ran in through the sleet,
now falling more quietly. They were wet, but no worse apparently for
their adventure, though full of contrition and distress at having lost
sight of the dog. He had rushed off into the woods some hours before,
after a rabbit or hedgehog, and had never returned. Nor had they seen
Fishin' Jimmy.
As hours went by and the old man did not return, a search party was
sent out, and guides familiar with the mountain paths went up Lafayette
to seek for him. It was nearly night when they at last found him, and
the grand old mountains had put on those robes of royal purple which
they sometimes assume at eventide. At the foot of a mass of rock,
which looked like amethyst or wine-red agate in that marvellous
evening light, the old man was lying, and Dash was with him. From the
few faint words Jimmy could then gasp out, the truth was gathered. He
had missed the boys, leaving the path by which they had returned, and
while stumbling along in search of them, feeble and weary,