The Pioneer Boys of the
Missouri
CHAPTER I
TWO BOYS IN A DUGOUT CANOE
“We are on the worse side of the river, Cousin Roger, if a storm breaks!”
“That is true, Dick; but it may not come down on us for hours yet; and the fish are taking hold finely now.”
“Yes, and no one likes to pull them in better than I do; but it seems to me we already have enough in the dugout to supply the whole Armstrong settlement.”
“Then mother can send some down to the Cragans in the St. Louis settlement; for they are old, and Mr. Cragan seldom goes out on the Missouri nowadays. Just wait a little longer, Dick. Oh! what a tug that was! Why, they keep getting bigger all the while. Look, the finest buffalo fish we’ve taken this afternoon, Dick! Did you ever see such a savage fighter? It makes my arms ache to drag him in against this current.”
“Mine have been feeling sore for a long time, now; but, when you get fishing, Roger, you never do know when to stop. Well, I’ll give in again, and stay a little longer, though I think we are taking big chances with that storm. But you must put a limit on the fish to be taken. When we have three more, no matter whether they are large or small, we’ll wind up our lines and cross the river.”
“Make it five, Dick, please; that’s only a little thing when the fish are biting as they are now.”
“Just as you say, Roger; but not another one, no matter what happens.”
“Oh! I always keep my word, even if they do call me Headstrong Roger, just as my father, Sandy Armstrong, was before me. Five it shall be, Dick; and see! that can take only a little while; because I’ve hooked one before my line was more than half-way out. And see him fight, will you? This is the best fishing we’ve had this year. It makes me think of the great times our fathers used to have, away up on the Ohio, where they built their first log cabin, before Grandfather Armstrong emigrated to the new Mississippi country.”