“Hadn’t we better leave our rifles ashore there, under the trees?” replied Bart.
“Yes, my lad, if you want to be taken at a disadvantage. Why, Master Bart, I should as soon think of leaving an arm or a leg ashore as my rifle. No, my lad, there’s no peace times out here; so no matter how inconvenient it may be, sling your piece, and be always prepared for the worst.”
“Oh, all right, Joses,” replied Bart, pettishly, and he slung his rifle.
“Oh, it’s of no use for you to be huffy, my lad,” growled Joses. “You never know when danger’s coming. I knowed a young fellow once up in the great north plains. He’d been across the Alkali Desert in a bad time, and had been choked with the heated dust and worried with the nasty salty stuff that had filled his eyes and ears, so that when he got to a branch of one of the rivers up there that was bubbling over rocks and stones just as this may be, and—ah, stoopid! Missed him!” cried Joses, after making a tremendous stab at a salmon.
“Well, Joses?”
Well! no, it wasn’t well. He thought he must have a good swim, and so he took off his clothes, laid his rifle up against the trunk of a big pine-tree, and in he went, and began splashing about in the beautiful cool clear water, which seemed to soften his skin, and melt off quite a nasty salt crust that had made him itchy and almost mad for days.
Well, this was so good that he swam farther and farther, till he swam right across to where the stream ran fast right under the steep rock, not so big as this, but still so big and steep that a man could not have climbed up it at the best of times, and—“Got him, my lad?” he exclaimed, as he saw Bart make a vigorous thrust with his spear.
“Yes, I have him,” cried Bart, excitedly, as he struggled with the vigorous fish, a large one of fourteen or fifteen pounds’ weight, one which he successfully drew upon the rocks, and after gloating over its silvery beauty, carried to the shore, returning just in time to see Joses strike down his fish-spear, and drag out a fish a little larger than the first one caught.
“That’s a fine one, Master Bart,” growled Joses, as he set off to step from stone to stone to the bank, while Bart, eager and excited, stood with poised spear, gazing intently down into the clear depths for the next beauty that should come within his reach.
Just then one came up stream, saw the danger impending, and went off like a flash through the water, turning slightly on his side and showing his great silvery scales.