`"Why, I'm frozen to me sowl!" cried Jimmy, as he changed the rat
bag to his other hand, and beat the empty one against his leg."
Say, Dannie, where do you think the Kingfisher is wintering?"
"And the Black Bass," answered Dannie. "Where do ye suppose the
Black Bass is noo?"
"Strange you should mintion the Black Bass," said Jimmy. "I was
just havin' a little talk about him with a frind of mine named
Chickie-dom, no, Chickie-dee, who works a grub stake back there.
The Bass might be lyin' in the river bed right under our feet.
Don't you remimber the time whin I put on three big cut-worms, and
skittered thim beyond the log that lays across here, and he lept
from the water till we both saw him the best we ever did, and
nothin' but my old rotten line ever saved him? Or he might be where
it slumps off just below the Kingfisher stump. But I know where he
is all right. He's down in the Gar-hole, and he'll come back here
spawning time, and chase minnows when the Kingfisher comes home.
But, Dannie, where the nation do you suppose the Kingfisher is?"
"No' so far away as ye might think," replied Dannie. "Doc Hues
told me that coming on the train frae Indianapolis on the fifteenth
of December, he saw one fly across a little pond juist below
Winchester. I believe they go south slowly, as the cold drives
them, and stop near as they can find guid fishing. Dinna that stump
look lonely wi'out him?"
"And sound lonely without the Bass slashing around! I am going to have
that Bass this summer if I don't do a thing but fish!" vowed Jimmy.
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