cted Dick, with dignity.

"No," broke in Shad, "Bob's right. Shad is my front name and I want
you fellows to call me Shad; leave the handle off."

"An' you wants, sir," agreed Dick. "'Tis a bit more friendly
soundin'."

"Them trout makes me think," said Ed, as he cut some tobacco from a
plug and filled his pipe after dinner, "of onct I were out huntin'
pa'tridges. I gets plenty o' pa'tridges, but I finds myself wonderful
hungry for trout, when I comes to a pool in a brook where I stops t'
cook my dinner an' sees a big un jump.

"'Now,' says I, t' myself, 'Ed,' says I, 'you got t' get un somehow,'
an' I goes through my pocket lookin' for tackle. All I finds is a
piece o' salmon twine an' one fishhook. 'I'll try un, whatever,' says
I, an' I cuts a pole an' ties th' salmon twine t' un, an' th' hook t'
th' salmon twine, an,' baitin' th' hook with a bit o' pa'tridge skin,
throws in.

"Quicker'n a steel trap a trout takes un, but he's a little un, an'
I'm so disgusted-like I don't pull he right in. Then before I knows it
a big trout takes an' swallows th' little un."

Ed paused to lend effect to the climax, while he lighted his pipe and
began puffing vigorously.

"Well?" asked Shad. "Did you land him?"

"Not very prompt," continued Ed. "I was so flustrated I just looks at
un for a bit, skiddin' around in th' water. Then, while I lets un
play, quicker'n I can say 'boo' an old whopper up an' grabs th' big un
an' swallows he. Then I yanks, an' I lands th' three of un.

"Th' outside un were two foot and a half long an' a fraction over. I
measures he. Th' next one were nineteen an' three-quarters inches
long, an' th' little un were ten inches long. Th' little un an' th'
next weren't hurt much, an' not wantin' they I throws un back, an' th'
big un does me for dinner an' supper an' breakfast th' next mornin',
an' then I throws a big hunk that were left over away, because I don't
want t' pack un any longer."

"Ed," said Dick solemnly, "you'll be struck dead some day for lyin'
so."

"Who? Me lyin'?" asked Ed, with assumed indignation.

"Yes, you. You'm always yarnin', Ed. You never seen a trout moren't
two foot long, no more'n I have," declared Dick.

"Oh, well," sighed Ed, while the others laughed, "they's no use
tellin' you of happenin's, Dick, you always were a doubtin' o' me."

The following day at noon the Muskrat Falls were reached, and here the
real work and hardship of the journey began. Day after day the men