"Now you watch! Right out there among the bass weeds
foreninst the pie-plant"
To avoid another limb, Jimmy aimed too low and the sinker shot
under the well platform not ten feet from him.
"Lucky you didn't get fast in the bass weeds," said Mary as
Jimmy reeled in.
"Will, I got to get me range," explained Jimmy. "This time----"
Jimmy swung too high. The spring slipped from under his unaccustomed
thumb. The sinker shot above and behind him and became entangled in
the eaves, while yards of the fine silk line flew off the spinning
reel and dropped in tangled masses at his feet, and in an effort to
do something Jimmy reversed the reel and it wound back on tangles
and all until it became completely clogged. Mary had sat down on
the back steps to watch the exhibition. Now, she stood up to laugh.
"And ~that's just what will happen to you at the river," she said.
"While you are foolin' with that thing, which ain't for rivers,
and which you don't know beans about handlin', Dannie will haul in
the Bass, and serve you right, too!"
"Mary," said Jimmy, "I niver struck ye in all me life, but if ye
don't go in the house, and shut up, I'll knock the head off ye!"
"I wouldn't be advisin' you to," she said. "Dannie is watching you."
Jimmy glanced toward the barn in time to see Dannie's shaking
shoulders as he turned from the door. With unexpected patience, he
firmly closed his lips and went after a ladder. By the time he had
the sinker loose and the line untangled, supper was ready.
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