The Story of Porcelain | Page 7

trout

are biting well. Get Tony, your guide, to pack up your tackle and bring
some lunch. I am afraid we have not enough for all hands."
Mr. Croyden sprang to his feet.
"I'll do that," he replied. "What time are you starting?"
"Just as soon as I have succeeded in getting Theo to take a little
nourishment," returned the Doctor.
This task Dr. Swift evidently did not find difficult, for within a half
hour the party were setting forth through the woods.
The luncheon, tackle, and sweaters had been put into a canoe, which
Tony and Manuel raised to their shoulders as if it were a feather.
"There is a punt over at Owl that we can use, so we shall need only one
canoe," explained Manuel as he strode along.
The carry was not a rough one, but to Theo, accustomed to the
smoothness of city pavements, it seemed very rough indeed. He was
continually stepping into holes or climbing over fallen tree-trunks, and
although a good walker, the pace the guides set made him pant. Even
Dr. Swift was forced to confess that he was out of breath and was
obliged now and then to stop and rest. Mr. Croyden, on the contrary,
swung along the narrow trail with the ease of an Indian.
"You will get into trim in a few days," he observed encouragingly to
Theo. "I myself am always stiff and slow until I get limbered up."
When, however, Owl Lake finally came into sight both Theo and his
father instantly forgot their fatigue.
There stretched the tiny sheet of water, a gem of flashing blue whose
calm surface mirrored the pines and delicate birches bordering its
margin.
The punt and canoe were launched, the tackle unpacked, and amid a
silence broken only by the dip of oar and paddle the fishermen drifted

out into the stillness.
Ah, it was a day never to be forgotten! Certainly Theo would never
forget it, for it was during the first half-hour of this Arabian Night's
dream that he proudly landed a beautiful lake trout, the first one he had
ever caught.
From the moment he felt the tug at his line until his catch was safely in
the bottom of the boat his excitement was tremendous. How the little
creature pulled! How it swept away with the bait into deep water! With
Manuel, Dr. Swift, Tony, and Mr. Croyden all coaching him, and
almost as frenzied as he, poor Theo hardly knew where he was. But he
obeyed the insistent command of: "Play him! Play him!" and play him
he did. Even with the captive's final leap into the air the trout did not
succeed in freeing itself from the hook. Keeping his prize well away
from the boat that the line might not slacken Theo at last reeled in his
victim.
He gasped when the feat was accomplished.
The second time he knew better what to do; and before the sun was
high and the fish had ceased to bite he landed five beauties.
In the meantime both his father and Mr. Croyden had been so absorbed
in watching his pleasure that they had almost forgotten their own lines,
and it was not until a big land-loch struck that the Doctor remembered
he, too, was fishing. When finally a lull in the sport came and the party
pulled up-stream toward the lean-to, there were a dozen good-sized
trout in Mr. Croyden's basket and as many more in the Doctor's.
Then came the disembarking at the upper end of the lake, and the
building of the fire. Dry wood was taken from the shelter of the house,
and in the clearing before the camp, on a foundation of large flat stones,
the fire was kindled. It was a marvel to Theo to see how quickly
Manuel and Tony made things ready. They produced a small frying-pan,
greased it, and had the fish sizzling in it before you could say Jack
Robinson. Then they unpacked the hampers and brought forth tin plates,
knives, and forks.

How good the meal tasted!
The great slices of bread-and-butter, with layers of creamy cheese
between them, seemed a royal feast to the ravenous sportsmen; and the
steaming coffee and thin slices of crisp bacon food for the gods. As for
the trout--particularly the big one Theo himself had caught--well, there
never was such eating!
After lunch was done the fishermen were loth to leave the sunny shelter
of the cabin.
Dr. Swift and Mr. Croyden lounged on the door-sill, while Theo
skipped stones in the water until his arm was tired. Then exhausted by
his exertions he sank wearily down on a stump near the lean-to and
remarked:
"Why wouldn't this be a good time, Mr. Croyden, to tell us some more
about Greek