THE CATFISH
"If Sneezer was here," said Frane, Junior, "he'd show you more fish than
I can. Sneezer used to just smell 'em out. But come on. I know where
some of the big ones stay."
"I don't want to dive in after them," declared Russ Bunker, laughing.
"The way you promised Laddie. And I haven't any hook and line at all."
"We won't go fishing. Not really. Mostly the darkies fish. We don't
bother to. They bring us plenty to eat when we want them at the house."
"You--you don't do much of anything, do you?" asked Russ doubtfully.
"Not for yourselves, I mean."
"Don't have to," returned Frane, Junior. "The darkies do it all for us.
But Phil and Alice and I have to do our own studying."
Russ saw that he was in fun, but he was curious enough to ask the
smaller boy:
"Do you and the girls go to school?"
"School comes to us. There is a teacher comes here. Lives at the house.
But it's vacation time now till after New Year's. I hope she never comes
back!"
"Oh, is she mean to you?"
"Course she is," declared Frane, Junior. "She makes us study. I hate
to."
"Well, sometimes I don't like what they make us learn in school,"
admitted Russ slowly. "But I guess it's good for us."
"How do you know, it is?" demanded the other. "I don't feel any better
after I study. I only get the headache."
Russ could not find an immediate answer for this statement. Besides,
there was something right in front of him then that aroused his
interest. It was a big log spanning the stream, with a shaky railing
nailed to it, made of a long pole attached to several uprights.
"That is the funniest bridge I ever saw," he declared. "Will it hold
you?"
"Look at that log. It would hold a hundred elephants," declared Frane,
Junior, who was inclined to exaggerate a good deal at times.
"Not all at once!" cried Russ.
"Yes, sir. If you could get 'em on it," said Frane. "But I don't s'pose
the railing would stand it."
When the boys went out on the bridge and Russ considered the railing he
was very sure that this last statement of his little friend was true,
whether any others were or not. The railing "wabbled" very much, and
Russ refrained from leaning against it.
"Now, you folks keep back!" whispered Frane shrilly to the colored
children who had followed them. "I want to show him the big fellow that
sleeps down here."
Somewhere he had picked up a piece of bark more than a foot long, which
was rolled into a cylinder. He lay down on the log near the middle of
the brook and began to look down into the brown and rather cloudy water
through this odd spyglass.
"What can you see through that thing?" asked Russ.
"Sh! Wait. Don't let 'em hear you," warned Frane, Junior. Then he
added: "Get down here 'side o' me. When I spot him I'll let you squint
through this too."
Russ understood now that his companion was trying to see one of the fish
that lived in the stream--perhaps the "big fellow" Frane had spoken of.
Russ grew quite excited and he took off his jacket and rolled up his
sleeves. He knelt down beside Frane, and finally lay right down on his
stomach and likewise peered over the side of the log.
The log-bridge had been made quite flat on its upper surface with a
broadaxe, and all the bark had long since worn off. It was all of thirty
feet long, but it was just as firm as the arch of a stone bridge.
"There!" whispered Frane. "I saw a flicker then. Yep! He's there! Right
below the edge of that stone!"
"I don't see anything but water. I can't even see the bottom," observed
Russ, in a low voice, too.
"Don't you see him below the stone?"
"I don't even see the stone," complained Russ.
"Hush! He'll hear you. I see his tail wiggle. He's a big cat."
"Now, don't tell me there's a cat in this brook!" said Russ Bunker,
shortly. "I know there isn't anything of the kind. Cats hate water."
He had already learned that Frane, Junior, was apt to exaggerate. Russ
thought the Armatage boy was letting his fancy run wild at this present
moment.
"It is a cat," murmured Frane. "I can see his whiskers moving. Yep, a
big fellow! Want to see?" and he took his eye away from the bark
cylinder.
"Can you see his teeth and his claws and his fur and his tail?" demanded
Russ scornfully, and without offering to take the cylinder. He did not
intend to be fooled so easily.
"What are you talking about?" hissed Frane. "And speak quietly. You'll
drive him away."
"Cats aren't so easily scared," said Russ. "You have to peg stones at
'em to drive 'em away."
"Huh!" sniffed Frane. "Funny cats up North. I don't believe you have any
up there."
"You're right we don't," agreed Russ, and now he laughed again. "Not
any cats that swim. Cats hate the water----"
"Aw, shucks! I'm not talking about cats!" exclaimed Frane. "I'm talking
about catfish."
"Oh!" ejaculated the Northern boy.
"You know a catfish, don't you? It has feelers that we call whiskers.
Awful nice eating, for they only have a backbone."
"Oh!" murmured Russ again. "I guess I didn't understand. Let me see the
fish, will you, please?"
"You can look," said Frane passing him the cylinder of bark. "But maybe
we have scared him off, talking so much."
The big catfish, however, had not been scared away. After a few moments,
and with Frane's aid, Russ Bunker got the wooden spyglass focused on the
proper point. He saw the imbedded rock Frane had spoken of. Then he saw
the fish basking in the water below the rock's edge.
It was almost two feet long, with a big head and goggle eyes, and the
"whiskers" Frane had spoken of wriggled back and forth in the slow
current. Russ grew excited.
"Why!" he whispered to Frane, "I could grab it, if I tried. It is just
like what we call bullheads up in Pineville. I've caught 'em in our
pond. You can hardly get 'em off the hook without getting stung by 'em."
"Catfish don't sting you. But you have to knock 'em in the head when you
land them, so as to make 'em behave. I've seen the boys do it."
"I'm going to make a grab for that fellow," declared Russ.
"I reckon you'd miss him. You couldn't hold him, anyway," said Frane
doubtfully.
"I could so."
"No, you couldn't. He's too big. They never catch catfish that way."
"I know I never caught a bullhead that way," admitted Russ. "But one
never lay so still for me. And right under this log! Here! You take the
spyglass."
"You'd better take care," advised the Southern boy.
But Russ felt very daring. It seemed that the fish lay only a few inches
under the surface of the brown water. If he could grasp the fish and
throw it ashore, how the other children would all shout! Perhaps Russ
Bunker wanted to "show off" a little. Anyway, he determined to make the
attempt to land the big catfish with his hands.
"You can't do it," warned Frane, Junior, creeping back a way so as to
give Russ more room.
"Don't say that till you see," returned the boy from the North. "Now,
look! I know just where he lies. Look!"
Russ had rolled his shirtsleeve up to his shoulder. He balanced himself
on the log, his head and shoulders overhanging the brown water. Suddenly
he made a dive with his right hand. Even his head touched the water, he
dipped so deep, and his cap went floating away.
And, wonderful to relate, his hand did seize upon the catfish. Perhaps
the fish had been asleep down there by the edge of the imbedded stone.
At any rate it was not quick enough to escape Russ Bunker's darting
hand.
"I got it!" yelled Russ, in delight.
He tried to seize fast hold upon the body of the catfish, but the fish
shot forward with a wriggle that slapped its tail against Russ's hand.
Russ plunged forward, trying to hold it.
"I--guess--he's--a--butter--fish!" he gasped. "He's so slippery----"
And then, losing his balance on the log, Russ Bunker fell right into the
deep pool with splash enough to frighten all the fishes for yards
around!