At the Foot of the Rainbow

bout fishing, Dannie

"It begins to look that way. I should think a week

and wanted to fight when he would not. He addressed the bottle, and Dannie, as the Sovereign Alchemist by turns, and "transmuted the leaden metal of life into pure gold" of a glorious drunk, until his craving was s

a noticeable change in her. She talked and laughed with a gayety that seemed forced,

abe, was too big a problem for him. And Jimmy Malone was growing to be another. Heretofore, Dannie had borne the brunt of the work, and all of the worry. He had let Jimmy feel that his was the guiding hand. Jimmy's plans were followed whenever it was possible, and when it was not, Da

efused to go anywhere, or to do the smallest piece of work alone. Sometimes he grew sullen and morose when he was not drinking, and that was very unlike the gay Jimmy. Sometimes he grew wildly hilarious, as if he were bound to make such a racket that he could hear no sound save his own voice. So long as he stayed at home, helped with the work, and made an

in' alone? All the fun there is to fishin' is to watch the other fellow's eyes when you pull in

t in the pumpkins before there c

m going to begin fishing for that Bass the morning aft

aid-" beg

ou've been kaping account of all the things I've said. Haven't

ieve ye can help it. But na man need lie about a serious matter, and when he knows he is deceiving another who trusts him." Jimmy became so white that he felt the

and drink with me. You know I haven't had a word from him about that coon skin. I worked awful hard on that skin. Some w

k. I think he goes on long trips, and only gets home every four or five months. The package would have to wait

ss his palm a spray of goldenrod he had broken. "

tle patience. But that's your greatest fau

ow me faults about as well as the nixt fellow. I'm so domn full of faults that

's soul. "Ye never woul

dyin', bedad I niver could face it without first confissin' to the pras

and then fish fra a week or so, before ice and trapping t

f yours? You couldn't bate an egg. Just watch me! If you are

ne side, and the kingfisher embankment on the other. There was a smoky haze in the air. As always the blackbirds clamored along the river. Some crows followed the workers at a distance, hunting for grains of corn, and over in the woods, a chewink scratched an

hite," whis

ite," answer

said Jimmy. "When he gets a lit

le rave over the lark, but I vow I'd miss the quail m

flock," said Jimmy. "I was just going to kill a

side, and the bluff on the other. If we keep up our fishing signs, and add hunting to them, and juist shut the other fellows out, the bi

int shot, and your gun is clane" (Jimmy remembered the crow that had escaped with the eggs at soap-making), "you pretty well know you're goin' to bring down anything you ai

dressed

quailie on

r singin's j

here, and l

at shoots you wil

when we threshed, we'd saved a few sheaves of wheat. They do that in Germany, ye know. The last sheaf of the harvest they p

them. Gee! Makes me feel important just to think about it. Next year we'll do it, sure. They'd be a lot of company. A man could work in this field to-

oted Dannie,

n you are, the voices of the black divils of conscience come twistin' up from the ground in a little wiry whisper, and moanin' among the trees, and whistlin' in the wind, and rollin' in

recall him. Jimmy straightened, stared wildly behind him, and over the open, hazy field, where flowers bloomed, and birds called, and the long rows of shocks stood unconscious auditor

nnie! It's so awful, I

, dear auld fellow," he said, "

to the hand that held his hat, that he might moisten his

my's sleeve. "Have ye been to town in t

of his head and testing the corn-cutter with his thumb. "This ain't Ca

said Dannie bitterly. "Dinna ye k

quick enough, if I knew how. But the railroad wouldn't be the ind. That would just be the beginnin'. K

new load. "Then we'll get in the pumpkins this afternoon, and bury the pot

ed Jimmy, struggling to make his voice sound natural

ver, we'll hae nothing left to do but catch

ss," said Jimmy, "and when I do, you won't need trouble to make your adieus to th

much as any season of the year," he sai

rampin' in the white woods, and trappi

had to go home when ye were away, and the nichts were so long, and so cold, and mony of them a

atter with me

ly ye'd stay,"

hin they clamored too loud, I could be drivin' out the divils that way, for a while, and you always came for

fore," said Dannie. "Tell me what

my. "I could work it off at Casey's for a while, but this summer things sort of came

red fra, and I care fra ye so much, I havna the way to tell ye how much. You're possessed with a damn fool idea, Jimmy, and ye

nk" from the pumpkins, there was a wagon-load of good ones above what they would need for their u

e said, "and whin I am not called I'd best not answer. I have promis

beets?" inquired

ything but a dead bate, Dannie. That's a thousand years old, but laugh, l

e's going to be dreadfully

ed Mary's order for groceries, and then went to the

drink! In time it makes a fool sodden and a bright man mad. Few men

ered Father Michael. The prie

y Malone?"

of coming to see ye. I'm na of your religion, but Mary is, and what suits her is guid enough for me. I've tried to think of everything under the sun

s!" said the priest. "Since,

lking aboot sleeping on the railroad, and he's having delusions. There are devils after him. He is the finest fellow ye ever knew, Father Michael. We've been friends all our

u know him as no living man, Dann

ime last year, I'd have said 'it's the drink,' at a jump. But times this summer, this morning, for instance, when he hadna a drop in three weeks, and dinna want ane, whe

into Dannie's sick face. "How

sper, "it looked like he might carry a damned ugly secre

ature of t

e'd let drink alone. Got more faith in him than any ane I ever knew. I wouldna trust mon on God's footstool, if I had to lose faith in Jimmy. Come to think of it, that 'secre

slip from the express office notifying Jimmy that there was a package for him. Dannie went to see if they would let him have it, and as Jimmy lived in the country, and as he and Dannie were known to be partners, h

ad lied about the number of coons in the Canoper. And so peace brooded in Rainbow Bottom, and all of them were happy again. For with the passing of summer, Dannie had learned that heretofore there had been happiness of a sort, for them, and that if they could all get back to t

l, they saw Dannie come clattering up the lane, and as he saw t

and descended with great deliberation. "I mintioned to Dannie this mor

om Boston?" the eagerness in Mary's vo

d Jimmy, and walked very

. "I think ye have heard from the Thread

e had an express package, the contents of which he did not know. It

and, to remind him. "Now what do you suppose he has sent you?

't weigh much," he said, "but

other, and it, too, fastened with a buckle. Jimmy caught sight of a paper book folded in the bottom of the box, as he lifted the case. With trembling fingers he unfastened the buckles, the whole thing unroll

exclaimed Dannie. "He

ack the nixt time he goes promenadin' on

rd on the cover of the little

steel, scarcely thicker than a lead pencil. "Cane!" he cried scornfully. Then he picked up the box, and opening it drew out a little machine

what is it?"

kes up as I come, and whin I get home I take the yardstick and measure me string, and be the same token, it tells me how far I've traveled." As he talked he drew out another shining length and added it to the first, and then another and a last, fine as a wheat straw. "These last jints I'm adding," he explained to Mary, "are so that if I have m

ok the shining, slender thi

now?" he triumphed in t

who has read thus far that Dannie, the patient; Dannie, t

nt treatment he got that nicht was frae me, and if I'd let Jimmy hit

s true. The

nt the steelyards, Mary. We winna

here is a picture of a man in a boat, pullin' in

e are going to fish wi' that thing along the river we'll have to cut doon a

g the book. Mary tried to

ed, hanging on.

easy," she said aggrievedly.

o dragging up everything along the bank like a living stump-puller. This book says this line will bear twinty pounds pressure, and s

and see what ye think ab

d the rod with the other, in a way that would have

l over his pool with this

agreed to fish fair for the Bass, and it wouldn't be fair for you to use that, whi

ll be all the more glory in taking the Bass fr

ain. He made it himself. Each man was to fish surface or deep, a

eemint. You very well know Dannie expected you to fish with t

ce he will only scare the Bass away from him with the racket that reel will make, and in the second, if he tries to land it with that thing, he will smash it, and lose the fish.

ied Mary. "Here's

e book from Jimmy.

I was just going to say that I would get so

n instant. He looked at it longingly. But Jimmy was impervio

rty pounds with a pole just like this," he announced.

turn about with i

ome way to put juist fifteen feet more line on my pole, I'd show him how to take the Bass to-morrow. The way we always have come to lose it is with too short lines. We have to try to land it before it's tired out and it's strong

ix some way?

," answer

ittle reel, and away goes me with Mr. Bass," said Jimmy. "I must

y to unhitch his team and do the evening work. The day had been trying and just for the moment he

he Dude who shindys 'round with those things in pi