"Did he come out here to have you tell him fish stories?" Billy inquired.
Again Antoine laughed. "No, Beely, the preacher she come out here and bring one temperance pledge. She say to me, 'Antoine, I'm fisherman, too. I'm ask you to sign your name on this one paper.' I'm tell that preacher she make a mistake, and I'm put one, two, three stick of wood on the stove, and it get too warm pretty quick. The preacher she go home, and ole Antoine she sign no pledge so long she live, I tole you that right now."
Betty looked discouraged, but Billy grinned as he knelt to peer through the hole in the ice. Both children knew better than to speak of their pledge.
With utmost patience Antoine explained to his visitors all he knew about fishing through the ice.
"What you think is on the end of that line, Beely, that go into the water there?"
"Minnows?"
"Oh, no, Beely, no minnow on the winter. On the end that line is one decoy fish. She's heavy and weighted with lead. We let it down on the deep water. Then, when we see a fish come after it, we wind the line with one windlass."
"Can't you pull in the line?" asked Betty.
"No, Betty, no, you pull the line, you jerk the decoy fish, and that won't do. Beely, you turn the crank there and wind the line over the reel. Now, Betty, kneel on the edge of the opening on the floor and look down on the water. Can you see one decoy fish?"