at fishing. Beside him on the grass a
little boy, with black, curling hair, and deep, brown eyes, sat clicking
a spare reel. Off to one side, in the shade, a colored man snored.

"Hey, Unk Bob!" lisped the little boy. "Don't Shag make an awful funny
noise?"

"He certainly does, Gerry! He certainly does!"

"Just 'ike a saw bitin' wood."

"That's it, Gerry! I'll have to speak to Shag about it. But now, Gerry,
my boy, you must keep still while Unk Bob catches a big fish."

"Ess, I keep still. But you tell me a 'tory after?"

"Yes, I'll tell you a story."

"Will you tell me how you was a fissin', an' a big white ball comed an',
zipp! knocked ze fiss off your hook? Will you tell me dat fiss 'tory?"

"Yes, Gerry, I'll tell you that if you'll be quiet now."

And Shag's snores mingled with the gentle whisper of the water and the
sighing of the wind in the willows.

And then, when the creel had been emptied and Colonel Robert Lee Ashley
sat on the porch with Gerry Ashley Bartlett snugly curled in his lap
and told the story of the golf ball and the fish, while Shag cleaned the
fish fresh from the brook, two figures stood in the door of the house.

"Look, Harry!" softly said the woman's voice. "Isn't that a picture?"

"It is, indeed, my dear. Gerry adores the colonel."

"No wonder. I do myself. Oh, by the way, Harry, I had a letter from
Captain Poland today."

"Did you? Where is he now?" asked Harry Bartlett, as his eyes turned
lovingly from the figure of his little son in the colonel's lap to that
of his wife beside him.

"In the Philippines. He says he thinks he'll settle there. He was so
pleased that we named the Boy after him."

"Was he?" and then, as his wife went over to steal up behind her little
son and clasp her hands over his eyes, the man, standing alone on the
porch, murmured:

"Poor Gerry!" And it was of the lonely man in the Philippines he was
speaking.

In the silent shadows Colonel Robert Lee Ashley fished again. This time
he was alone, save for the omnipresent Shag. And as the latter netted a
fish, and slipped it into the grass-lined creel, he spoke and said:

"Mr. Young, he done ast me to-day when we gwine back t' de city. He
done say dere's a big case waitin' fo' you, Colonel, sah. When is we-all
gwine back?"

"Never, Shag!"

"Nevah, Colonel, sah?"

"No. I'm going to spend all the rest of my life fishing. I've resigned
from the detective business! I'll never take another case Never!"