And then the noise did burst out. Everybody was bouncing and thumping and barking and squealing, getting into everybody’s way, trying to keep out of Tommy’s. And Tommy was trying to hold on to that fish line while he scrambled back to the ground where he could do some strong hauling. And the great big bass was jerking and jabbing and pulling and fighting, trying to get away from him.
And not a single one of them succeeded. Tad Coon got under Watch’s dancy paws; and Watch tripped Tommy Peele; and Tommy Peele went splash right into the pond; and that great big bass jumped, splash, right out of it. But he didn’t get away! Not with all those fellows after him!
For just as Tommy fell he threw up his hand to keep his fish line from being tangled. And that was just when the fish was jumping. You’d better believe he made a great big jump that time. He jumped in a great big half-circle right up into the bushes where Stripes Skunk was hiding. And then he began flouncing and bouncing to get back into the water again. And of course Stripes Skunk, who fishes a bit his own self, went to stop him.
Then there was a battle! The big bass snapped and flapped and put up all his pickery spines on his back fin. And Stripes Skunk slawed him and pawed him, trying to spear his toenails into those slippery, slidy scales to hold him. And Doctor Muskrat slapped his tail and fairly barked with excitement. “Bite him behind the eyes, Stripes! Bite him behind the eyes!” And at last Stripes got his teeth on the big roach of neck that begins just behind a fish’s eyes and bit. The bass gave one tremendous flap that sent the dust and sand and dead grass flying, and lay still.
But you ought to have seen Tommy Peele. He didn’t know what to do about it. Here was a strange beast he didn’t know at all, a small black beast that looked something like a pussy cat, only it had the most beautiful long, dark fur, with a wide white stripe parted behind its ears and running all the way down to the round white tip of its wonderful plumy tail. “Better let go that fish,” Tommy advised. “You certainly are a good fighter, but if you try to eat it you’ll get a fishhook in your own mouth, and there certainly will be trouble.”
Stripes battles with a big fish
Now of course Stripes didn’t know what Tommy meant. But he knew it was Tommy’s fish in the first place, and besides, Watch the Dog was just trembling on the tips of his toes because he wanted to snatch it back for Tommy. Only he didn’t have to. For Stripes was glad enough to put it down and stretch his tired neck and get the cramp out of his jaws that were stiff from gripping it. And when he yawned Tommy could see his pink throat and his pointy tongue—and some little hurty, bleedy spots where that pickery back-fin had stuck into him.
And there was Doctor Muskrat waddling up beside him to sniff the bass and say: “Well bitten, Stripes—very well bitten, indeed!” and Tad Coon was sort of chuckling in his throat: “By Tadpoles, Stripes, I’m glad you never tried to fight with me,” and Nibble was fairly purring, “I’m proud of you, Stripes. This is one more joke on Tad Coon. He said you didn’t know what teeth were for.” Even Watch wasn’t quite sure that he oughtn’t to be ashamed of himself for growling. He looked to see what Tommy Peele was going to do.
Tommy pulled in his line and took the hook out of the fish’s mouth—and then maybe you think they weren’t curious about it! “Aha!” said the wise old muskrat. “I thought it wasn’t just like the wire that caught you, Nibble. A fish is so slippy I couldn’t see how that would hold him. This is cold and smelly, like the cold jaws that caught me. Better not get too close to it.” And that’s just about what Tommy said when Tad Coon wanted to take the shiny thing in his handy-paws to look at it. And when Stripes Skunk saw that none of the others was afraid, he came closer, too, and crinkled up his nose at it.