Troop One of the Labrador | Page 4

you back at The Jug!"
"And there's good old Roaring Brook!" Doctor Joe stopped for a
moment with half closed eyes, to listen to the rush of water over the
rocks, where Roaring Brook tumbled down into The Jug. "It's the
sweetest music I've heard since I left here! And the smell of the spruce

trees! And such a scene! Thomas, my friend, it's a rugged land where
we live, but it's God's own land, just as He made it, beautiful, and
undefiled by man!"
Doctor Joe turned about and stretched his right arm toward the south.
Before them lay the shimmering placid waters of The Jug, reaching
away to join the wider, greater waters of Eskimo Bay. In the distance,
beyond the Bay, the snow-capped peaks of the Mealy Mountains stood
in silent majesty, now reflecting the last brilliant rays of the setting sun.
As they tarried, watching them, the light faded and shafts of orange and
red rose out of the west. The waters became a throbbing expanse of
colour, and the woods on the Point, at the entrance to The Jug, sank
into purple.
"'Tis a bit of the light of heaven that the Lord lets out of evenin's for us
to see," said Jamie, and perhaps Jamie was right.
"You must be rare hungry, now," observed Thomas, as they entered the
cabin. "Margaret were just puttin' supper on when Jamie sights you
turnin' the P'int. 'Twill be ready in a jiffy."
"What have you got for us, Margaret?" asked Doctor Joe. "I believe I
am hungry for the good things you cook."
"Fried trout, sir," said Margaret.
"Fried trout!" Doctor Joe rolled his eyes in mock ecstasy. "It couldn't
have been better!"
"You always says that, whatever," laughed Margaret. "If 'twere just
bread and tea I'm thinkin' you'd like un fine."
"But trout!" exclaimed Doctor Joe. "Why, fresh trout are worth five
dollars a pound where I've been--and couldn't be had for that!"
"Well, now!" said Margaret in astonishment. "And we has un so
plentiful!"

David lighted a lamp and Thomas renewed the fire, which crackled
cheerily in the big box stove, while everybody talked excitedly and
Margaret set on the table a big dish of smoking fried trout, a heaping
plate of bread, and poured the tea.
"Set in! Set in, Doctor Joe!" Thomas invited.
And when they drew up to the table, with Thomas at one end and
Margaret at the other, and Doctor Joe and Jamie at Thomas's right, and
David and Andy at his left, Thomas devoutly gave thanks for the return
of their friend and asked a blessing upon the bounty provided.
"Help yourself, now, and don't be afraid of un," Thomas admonished,
passing the dish of trout to Doctor Joe.
"A real banquet," Doctor Joe declared, as he helped himself liberally.
"I've eaten in some fine places since I've been away, but I've had no
such feast as this! And there's no one in the whole world can fry trout
like Margaret!"
"You always says that, sir," and Margaret's face glowed with pleasure
at the compliment.
"'Tis true!" declared Doctor Joe. "'Tis true!"
"I'm wonderin' now about the trout," remarked David.
"What are you wondering?" asked Doctor Joe.
"How folks get along with no trout to eat off where you've been, sir."
"There are men who go far out from the city and fish in the streams for
trout, just for the sport of catching them," explained Doctor Joe. "They
will tramp all day along brooks, and feel lucky if they catch a dozen
little fellows so small we'd not look at them here. But it is only the few
who do it for sport that ever get any at all, and there are hundreds of
people there who never even saw a trout, they catch so very few of
them."

"'Twould seem like a waste o' time," remarked Thomas, "if they catches
so few. I'd never walk all day for a dozen trout unless I was wonderful
hard up for grub. If I were wantin' fish so bad I'd set a net for whitefish
or salmon, or if there were cod grounds about I'd gig for cod, though
salmon or cod or whitefish would never be takin' the place o' good
fresh trout with me."
"It's not altogether for the trout the sportsmen tramp the streams all
day," laughed Doctor Joe. "They prize the trout they get as a great
delicacy, to be sure, but it's the joy of getting out into the open that
pays them for the effort. I've done it myself. They get plenty of sea fish,
they buy them at the shops."
"I never were thinkin' o' that," said Thomas. "I'm thinkin', now, that's
where all the salmon we salts down and sells to the Post goes."
The