ing. He took it with a
great slop and carried out a long stretch of line. It was a test for the
little rod. There had been unkind remarks about the tiny bamboo whip;
this was to be justification; a big trout on a long line, in deep, swift
water--the combination was perfect. Battle now, ye ruler of the rapids!
Show your timber now, thou slender wisp of silk and cane!

But we have had enough of fishing. I shall not dwell upon the details of
that contest. I may say, however, that I have never seen Del more
excited than during the minutes--few or many, I do not know how few or
how many--that it lasted. Every guide wants his canoe to beat, and it
was evident from the first that this was the trout of the expedition. I
know that Del believed I would never bring that fish to the canoe, and
when those heavy rushes came I was harrassed with doubts myself. Then
little by little he yielded. When at last he was over in the slower
water--out of the main channel--I began to have faith.

So he came in, slowly, slowly, and as he was drawn nearer to the boat,
Del seized the net to be ready for him. But I took the net. I had been
browbeaten and humiliated and would make my triumph complete. I brought
him to the very side of the boat, and I lifted him in. This time the big
fish did not get away. We went to where the others had been watching,
and I stepped out and tossed him carelessly on the ground, as if it were
but an everyday occurrence. Eddie was crushed. I no longer felt
bitterness toward him.

I think I shall not give the weight of that fish. As already stated, no
one can tell the truth concerning a big fish the first trial, while more
than one attempt does not look well in print, and is apt to confuse the
reader. Besides, I don't think Eddie's scales were right, anyway.

Chapter Twenty-eight

_Then breathe a sigh and a long good-by_
_To the wilderness to-day,_
_For back again to the trails of men_
_Follows the waterway._

Chapter Twenty-eight

Through the Eel-wier--a long and fruitful rapid--we entered our old
first lake, Kedgeemakoogee, this time from another point. We had made an
irregular loop of one hundred and fifty miles or more--a loop that had
extended far into the remoter wilderness, and had been marked by what,
to me, were hard ventures and vicissitudes, but which, viewed in the
concrete, was recorded in my soul as a link of pure happiness. We were
not to go home immediately. Kedgeemako