“Come over to the log and sit down, Toby,” tempted Jack; “you must be a little tired after your long walk, and all the work of catching such a bunch of fighters. It seems after all that the gamiest bass frequent the upper reaches of Paradise River. And none of the fellows in Chester cared to go that far when the fishing near home was always pretty good.”
So Toby was escorted to the sitting log with one chum on either side. He would not have been a natural boy if he did not feel his importance just then, with two fellows eager to hear his story.
“Now pitch in and tell us what really did happen,” begged Steve; “for of course by now you’ve got us all excited, and guessing a dozen things in the bargain.”
“Well, I didn’t have a bit of trouble finding the river,” began Toby, just as though he felt he should conduct them gradually along until the climax came, as good story-tellers do, he understood. 36 “All I had to do was to follow my nose, and keep going ahead into the west.
“I reckon the Paradise River must lie about a mile and a half over yonder; but in places the going isn’t as easy as you’d like. Finally, I glimpsed running water, though to tell the truth I’d heard it some time before; because in places there are quite some rapids, and they make music right along, as the water gurgles down the incline, and swishes around rocks that stick out above the surface.
“Let me tell you, boys, the old river may look pretty fine in spots down our way, but shucks! it can’t hold a candle to what you’ll see up here. Soon’s I got my eyes fastened on that picture I thought of you, Jack, and how you’d just love to knock off such a handsome view for keeps.
“But fishing was what I’d come after, and so I put all other notions out of my head. It didn’t take such an old fisherman as Toby Hopkins long to settle on what looked like the most promising site for throwing out in an eddy just below some frowning big rocks, and where the shadows looked mighty inviting for a deep hole.
“Say, the fun began right away. Hardly had my baited hook disappeared in the dark water when I had a savage strike, and away my reel buzzed like fury. He was a game fighter, let me tell you, and I had all I could do to land him, what with his acrobatic jumps out of the water, and his boring deep down between times. But everything 37 held, and he chanced to be well hooked, so at last in he came.
“That sure looked like business, and I lost no time in baiting up again, for I knew how finicky bass are about biting, and that you have to make hay while the sun shines, because they quit work just as suddenly as they start in, without you understanding the cause either.
“Right away I had another, and then a third big chap followed which I lost. But what did one fish matter when there seemed to be no end of them just hanging around waiting a chance for grub–because that was just what I was feeding ’em, having fetched along two dozen big white and brown fat fellows I got out of rotten stumps around home.