The old man paid no attention to him whatever, and, on watching him closely, the boy noticed that he was fishing for minnows with a pin-hook fastened to a thread, and this tied to a crooked8 stick. He put the minnows he caught into a tin bucket which was sitting at his feet, partially9 full of water. As soon as the boy noticed what he was doing, he set his pole and went up to him and offered to take off his shirt and help him seine for minnows with it. The old man looked up and said:
"Boy, I wouldn't fish with minnows caught with the best seine on earth. Your shirt wouldn't be much account as a seine; and anyway, they're never big enough. I am on my way to Wakarusa, and I want some good, strong, live minnows. A man who fishes with seined minnows is no account. More than that, you have no business to get your shirt wet. You tend to your fishin' and I'll tend to mine. Andrew Jackson said he knew a man who got rich tending to his own business."
This was a good deal of a bluff10 for the boy, and he proceeded as had been suggested, and "tended to his own business." It was a good morning for bullheads, and he soon got their range and commenced catching11 them. In fact, they were biting so well that he didn't stop to string any of those he caught, but threw them back on the bank; and just to see to it that the stranger did not forget he was there, he usually threw them toward the foot of the sycamore tree.
After a while the old man took his thread off the crooked stick and wound it up, poured most of the water off his minnows, and then filled the bucket again with fresh water, splashing it in with his hand so that it would be as full of oxygen as possible; and then he took out an old pipe and filled it, and as he commenced to smoke he looked around at the ground, spotted12 with wriggling13 bullheads and sunfish, and for the boy, who had experienced a lull14 in his activities long enough to allow him to commence to pick up and string the fish he had caught.
The boy looked at him, and he brightened up and said:
"Kid, you're having a good time, and I don't blame you. I am going down to Wakarusa to fish for big fish, but, after all, you've got more sense than I. The bullhead is the safest and surest fish for meat, and he's not bad sport either, because he usually bites like he meant business, although he may be a little slow. The bullhead is a good deal like the rabbit in one way — he's sure food. There's more rabbit meat on foot in Kansas than there is beef or pork, and it's all good. The buffalo15 was all right in his time, but even he didn't come up to the rabbit. The bullhead reminds me of the rabbit, and the rabbit reminds me of the bullhead."
The old man stopped talking, and acted as though he were about to start off, when the boy asked him where he was going on the Wakarusa to fish, and he said:
"I don't know just where I'll wind up. I have fished in every hole in Wakarusa from way above the Wakarusa falls down stream nearly to Lawrence, and sometimes I go to one place and sometimes to another. I've fished for bullheads, too, and for sunfish, in every place that the water is deep enough from the place where Berry Creek starts, over in the coal banks by Carbondale, down to the Sac and Fox spring and all along Lynn Creek, especially in the part that's full of boulders16 and little round pebbles17, with here and there a riffle made by a broken flat rock. And boy, I want to tell you something — some days you can catch fish like you've been catching 'em this morning, and some days you can't. I've seen days so dull that even the bite of a crawfish was welcome."
The old man started off, and then came back and took the boy by the shoulder and almost shook him as he said:
"Don't tell anyone that you saw me. It's nobody's business." And then he went away.
The boy was not at all afraid, although the man was a total stranger, and looked and acted very queer. The next day he told Joe Coberly about meeting him, and Joe said:
"That old cuss is not real. He's around here every once in a while, and always has been. Nobody knows where he lives nor where he comes from or goes to. He must have been in a good humor or you wouldn't have caught so many fish, because he can give you good luck or bad luck; and there's always something strange happenin' when you hear of him around. Last night something had one of my horses out and run him nearly to death; his mane was all tied in knots this morning, and he was wringin' wet with sweat when I went into the barn; and the barn doors were all fastened just as I had left them, too. You never can tell what's goin' to happen when that old devil's pretendin' to fish up and down the creek."
The boy told the story to a number of people, and soon found that practically all of the old-timers thought just the same as did Joe Coberly, and that they believed that there was something mysterious and unreal about the fisherman he met at the bullhead hole.
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1
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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7
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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8
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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10
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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11
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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12
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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13
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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14
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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15
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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16
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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17
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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