Pluck on the Long Trail

gulations, while on the march-to get up at five. The ones who didn't turn out pr

ding fire, etc.; Major Henry chopped wood; Kit Carson and little Jed Smith looked after the burros, Apac

eakfast we policed the camp, and dumped everything into a hole, or burned it, so that we left the place just about as we had found it. We stamped out the fire, or put dirt and water on i

y. We thought we could make Gray Bull Basin in three days. Ten or twelve miles a day, with burros, on the trail, up-hill all t

had bacon, and could catch trout higher up the creek. Here were some beaver dams, and around the first dam lived a big trout that nobody had been able to land. The beaver dams were famous camping places for parties who could go this fa

t hustle on and put those ten miles behind us before the enemy got in touch with us again. Our busin

s Fitzpatrick picked up a beaver cutting. That was an aspen stick (beavers like aspen and willow bark best) about as large as your wrist and two feet long. It was green

ke a crack. There was no use in trying to go through this canyon; the trail had faded out, and we were about to oblique off up the hill on our side of the c

The beaver was in pretty bad condition. He must have been drowned for a week or more. The trap had no brand on it. Usually traps are branded on the pan, but this wasn't and that went to show that whoever was trapping knew better. The sight of that beaver, killed uselessly, made us sick and mad both. But we

; and beyond was the tip of Pilot Peak. But on our side a forest fire had burned out the timber, leaving only black stumps sticking up, with the ground covered by a new growth of bushes. Th

g all the morning, and this was a good place to stop. Plent

lthough we looked about, after locating camp and unpacking the burros, we couldn't find a fresh sign. We

here they weren't doing any harm. But the fire had laid waste one s

er thing, isn't it? So, after camp was laid out (which is the first thing to do), and our flags set up, while Fitzpatrick the Bad Hand and Major Henry

not just sport; and when we had a trout bite we wanted to yank him right out. A stiff, dead willow will do that. Grasshoppers were whirring around, among the dried trunks and the grass. That is what grasshoppers like, a place where it's hot a

en a trout knows that you are about, then the game is off. Besides, lots of people had been fishing the pond, and the beaver hunters must have been fishing it

rout usually doesn't prowl about much. He gets a lair, in a hole or under a bank, and stays close, eating whatever comes his

at if I were a big trout I'd be in a shady spot over across, where the water swept around a low place of the dam and made a black eddy under the

he edge of it; and if a trout was still there he would be watching out for that. So the way to surprise him would be to sneak on

the hole from this direction; it was too hard work. By reaching out with my pole I could just flip the hopper into the water. I tried twice;

any fuss that he was a king trout, and if I didn't haul him right in he'd break the pole or tear loose. I shortened pole like lightn

e very edge of his lip. That made me hurry. In a moment he'd be away. I suppose I leaned out too far

me, I was sure. As soon as I could stand and open my eyes I looked for him. When I had dived in I must have shaken loose the line, for it was unde

not to tear the hook free; and the minute I scrambled knee-deep, with a big s

ould have wanted a reel and light tack

e!" I yelled, across t

yelled litt

eans two pounds. He was an Eastern brook trout. They grow larger in the cold water of the West than

to his waist, and something

he called, as I was com

een i

nd you should have heard Jed grunt, as th

y help?"

lick me, then he o

you cat

st the

current and then lif

e doesn't t

reak tha

then Jed stubbed his toe on a rock and fell flat. He didn't let

right in!" kept shouting Fitz and

he said to me. "I'd have to haul him against the current." I

let me get the fish out, when he'd been the one to hook it. But we w

ng until he shot out to the edge of the pond, and there Fitz t

im up we gave

A.! B.

Elks!

oooo