He removed the worm from the hook and slowly began to twist the pole in the more or less perfunctory process of "winding up" the line. The young man looked on disinterestedly.
"Ain't you going to untangle that line?" inquired the old man, jerking his thumb.
"What's the use? The worm is dead by this time, and God knows I prefer to let him rest in peace. The quickest way to untangle a line is to do it like this."
He severed it with his pocket-knife.
"A line like that costs twenty-five cents," said the old man, a trace of dismay in his voice.
"That's what it cost when it was new," drawled the other. "You forget it's been a second-hand article since eight o'clock this morning,—and what's a second-hand fish-line worth?—tell me that. How much would you give, in the open market, or at an auction sale, for a second-hand fish-line?"
"I guess we'd better be gittin' back to the house," said the other, ignoring the question. "Got to clean these fish if we're expectin' to have 'em for dinner,—or lunch, as you fellers call it. I'll bet your grandfather never called it lunch. And as for him callin' supper DINNER,—why, by crickey, he NEVER got drunk enough for that."
"More than that," said the young man calmly, "he never saw a cigarette, or a telephone, or a Ford, or a safety-razor,—or a lot of other things that have sprung up since he cashed in his checks. To be sure, he did see a few things I've never seen,—such as clay-pipes, canal boats, horse-hair sofas, top-boots and rag-carpets,—and he probably saw Abraham Lincoln,—but, for all that, I'd rather be where I am today than where he is,—and I'm not saying he isn't in heaven, either."
The older man's eyes twinkled. "I don't think he's any nearer heaven than he was forty years ago,—and he's been dead just about that long. He wasn't what you'd call a far-seeing man,—and you've got to look a long ways ahead if you want to see heaven. Your grandma's in heaven all right,—and I'll bet she was the most surprised mortal that ever got inside the pearly gates if she found him there ahead of her. Like as not she would have backed out, thinking she'd got into the wrong place by mistake. And if he IS up there, I bet he's making the place an everlastin' hell for her. Yep, your grandpa was about as mean as they make 'em. As you say, he didn't know anything about cigarettes, but he made up for it by runnin' after women and fast horses,—or maybe it was hosses and, fast women,—and cheatin' the eye teeth out of everybody he had any dealings with."
"I don't understand how he happened to die young, If all these things were true about him," said the other, lighting a fresh cigarette and drawing in a deep, full breath of the pungent smoke. The old man waited a few seconds for the smoke to be expelled, and then, as it came out in a far-reaching volume, carrying far on the still air, his face betrayed not only relief but wonder.