inevitable question:

"Gee, don't you wish we could catch a fish like that?"

And Silvey made the inevitable reply:

"Just don't you, though!"

They watched breathlessly as the fisherman forced his stringer between
the large gills and out through the gaping mouth, and tied it in a
secure double knot that there might be no danger of an escape. As the
rebellious captive was lowered into the water, and the throng about the
spot began to thin, the successful angler seated himself again.

"What'd you catch him on?" John broke out.

"Taters."

"Do big fellows like that bite on potatoes?"

They were assured that such was the case.

"Say," John scratched nervously at a knot in a pier plank as he summoned
courage for his request. "Give me a hunk, will you? I never caught a
fish that big in my life and I sure want to!"

"Catch." The man's eyes flashed in amusement as he opened a deep cigar
box and tossed out a half-boiled tuber.

For a second time that morning, the boys tested a new type of bait.
Hoping to change his luck, John cast far out to the very limit of the
ten cents' worth of fishing line on his reel and sat, tensely hopeful,
for five dragging minutes. Then he jammed the pole into its old resting
place between the bent nails.

"No use," he exclaimed in disgust to Silvey.

Hardly were the words out of his mouth before the reel gave a sharp
click of alarm. The sagging line grew taut and rose more and more from
the water as an unseen something made a frightened break for liberty.
John seized the handle as the rod threatened to drop into the water and
jumped to his feet.

"Gee!" he cried, half frightened by the weight and resistance of the
fish, "Gee!"

Silvey strained his eyes far out in an effort to descry the captive. The
southerner who had given the minnows sprang forward with a shout of
"Play him, boy, play him. Give him line until he turns or he'll break
away."

"Can't," John gasped, his heart in his mouth. "It's all out, now."

As the cheap line stretched almost to the breaking point, the fish
circled rapidly landward, then, alarmed by the shoaling water, sped
back, close by the pier, for the open lake. The minnow monopolist jerked
his lines clear of impending entanglement and scowled.

"Take in slack, boy, take in slack," shouted the southerner.

John's fingers spun around like a paper pinwheel. Again the line
tightened and again the carp turned to the shore. The news that a big
one was hook