Shawn of Skarrow

Author of Sprigs O' Mint, Kentucky Stories, Awhile in the Mountains, etc.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Copyright, 1911, THE C. M. CLARK PUBLISHING CO., Boston, Massachusetts.
Shawn and Coaly.

Oh Shawn!
It was a shrill voice calling from the bank above the river.
You can holler till dark, but I ain't goin' to answer you while a blue-channel cat is nibblin' at this line.
Through the short and chubby fingers a stout sea-grass line was running out to the accumulated driftwood in the eddy below the wharf-boat. Suddenly there came a spasmodic jerk of the line.
He bluffed that time.
The front finger tapped the line, as an expert telegraph operator taps his key.
He's coming back for that crawfish tail now. The line went taut. The freckled arms executed a series of light ning-like movements and the catfish lay on the shore, a five-pounder, beating the sands with his flashing tail.
Oh Shawn!