The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound Part 16

All of the boys were up early, and they were eager to take up the many plans they had laid out for the day. Breakfast was the first thing on the calendar; and while it was being prepared and dispatched the tongues of that half score of boys ran on like the water over the wheel of the old mill, with a constant clatter.

There was no necessity for all of them to remain at home to work on the new bunks, so Paul picked out several to a.s.sist him in that work.

The others were at liberty to carry out such scout activities as most appealed to their fancy. Some planned to go off with the woodsman to see how he managed with his steel traps, by means of which, during the winter, he expected to lay by quite a good-sized bundle of valuable fur. Then there was wood to chop, pictures to be taken, favorable places to be found for setting the camera during a coming night so as to get a flashlight view of a fox or a mink in the act of stealing the bait, as well as numerous other pleasant duties and diversions, all of which had been eagerly planned for the preceding night as the boys sat before the crackling fire.

CHAPTER XVII

"TIP-UPS" FOR PICKEREL

Tom Betts came up from the frozen creek.

"I don't believe that little snow ought to keep us from trying the scheme we laid out between us, Jack," he said, looking entreatingly at the other.

"Why, no, there wasn't enough to hurt the skating," replied the other, readily, much to Tom's evident satisfaction.

"Bully for you, Jack!" he exclaimed. "There was more or less wind blowing at the time, and the snow was pretty dry, so it blew off the ice. We can easily make the lake in an hour I reckon, with daylight to help us. Besides, we know the way by this time, you see."

"All right!" called out Frank, who had been detailed to a.s.sist Paul in the making of the extra bunks out of some spare boards that lay near by, having been brought into the woods for some purpose, though never used.

"Remember, you two fishermen," warned Paul, "we'll all have our mouths set for pickerel to-night, so don't dare disappoint us, or there will be a riot in the camp."

"We've just got to get those fish, Jack," said Tom, with mock solemnity, "even if we have to go in ourselves after them. Our lives wouldn't be worth a pinch of salt in this crowd if they had to go pickerelless to-night."

"Oh! that'll do! Be off with you!" roared Jud Elderkin, making out to throw a frying-pan at Tom's head.

When at the lake talking to the man who had agreed to look after their iceboats during their absence, the boys had learned that there was fine fishing through the ice to be had at this season of the year.

Abe Turner had also informed them that should they care to indulge in the sport at any time, and should skate down to his cabin, he would show them just how it was done. What was more to the point, he had a store of live minnows in a spring-hole that never froze up, even in the hardest winter, he had been told.

This then was the object that drew the two scouts, both of them exceedingly fond of fishing in every way. None of the boys had ever fished through the ice, it happened, though they knew how it was done.

Accordingly, Tom and Jack set off down the creek, their skate runners sending back that clear ringing sound that is music in the ears of every lad who loves the outdoor sports of winter.

Jack carried his gun along. Not that he had any particular intention of hunting, for others had taken that upon themselves as a part of the day's routine, but then a deer might happen to cross their path, and such a chance if it came would be too good to lose.

"You see," commented Tom, after a mile or so had been placed to their credit, "the snow isn't going to bother us the least bit. And I never enjoyed skating any better than right now."

"Same here," Jack told him. "And we certainly couldn't find ourselves surrounded by a prettier scene, with every twig covered with snow."

"Listen!"

Both of them stopped when Tom called in this fashion, and strained their ears to catch a repet.i.tion of the sound Tom had heard.

"Oh! that's only a fox barking," said Jack. "I've heard them do it many a time. You know they belong to the dog family, just as the wolf and jackal and hyena do. Tolly Tip has a couple of fox pelts already, and he says they are very numerous this year. Come on, let's be moving again."

So they pursued their winding way down the straggling creek, first turning to the right and then to the left.

"It's been just an hour since we left camp," remarked Jack at length, "and there you can catch a glimpse of the lake through the trees yonder."

Abe Turner was surprised as well as pleased to find two of the boys at his door that morning.

"Didn't expect us back so soon, did you, Abe?" laughed Tom. "But in laying out the plans for to-day we found that some of the boys were fish hungry, so we decided to run down and take you up on your proposition."

"Nothing would please me better," Abe told them. "And it is about as good a day for ice fishing as anybody'd want to set eyes on. I'll go right away and get my lines. Then we'll pick up a pail, and put some of my minnows in it."

Before long they were out upon the ice of Lake Tokala, Tom carrying an axe, Jack the various lines and "tip-ups" that were to signal when a fish had been hooked, and Abe with the live bait in a tin bucket.

The day was not a bitterly cold one, and this promised to make fishing agreeable work.

"On the big lakes where they do a heap of this kind of work,"

explained their guide as they went toward Cedar Island, "the men build little shanties out on the ice, where they can keep fairly warm. You see sometimes the weather is terribly cold. But a day like this makes it a pleasure to be out."

Coming to a place where Abe knew from previous experience that a good haul could be made, the first hole was cut in the ice. As winter was still young this did not prove to be a hard task.

Abe had marked a dozen places where these holes were to be chopped, but the boys chose to watch him set his first line. After the novelty had worn off they would be ready to take a hand themselves.

There are many sorts of "tip-ups" used in this species of sport, but Abe's kind answered all purposes and was very simple, being possibly the original "tip-up."

He would take a branch that had a certain kind of fork as thick around as his little finger. In cutting this he left two short "feet" and one long one. To Tom's mind it looked something like an old-fashioned cannon, with the line securely tied to the short projecting muzzle.

When the fish took hold this point was pulled down, with the result that the longer "tail" shot up into the air, the outstretched legs preventing the fork from being drawn into the hole.

At the end of the long "tail" Abe had fastened a small piece of red flannel. When a dozen lines were out it often kept a man busy running this way and that to attend to the numerous calls as signaled by the upraised red flags.

"Now that we know just how it's done," said Tom, after they had seen the bait fastened to the hook and dropped into the lake, "we'll get busy cutting all those other holes. My turn next, Jack, you remember.

Watch my smoke."

They had hardly finished the second hole before they heard Abe laughing, and glancing toward him discovered that he was holding up a two-pound, struggling pickerel.

"First blood for Abe!" cried Tom. "But if they keep on biting it'll be our chance soon, Jack. My stars! but that is a beaut, though. A dozen like that would make the boys stare, I tell you."

When Abe had arranged four lines he would not hear of the boys cutting any more holes.

"I'll dig out a couple to make an even half dozen," he told them. "And the way the pike are biting to-day I reckon we'll get a good mess."

"All right, then," agreed Tom, much relieved, for he wanted to be pulling in the fish rather than doing the drudgery. "I'll look after these two holes, Jack, and you skirmish around the others. And by jinks! if I haven't got one right now!"

"The same here," shouted the equally excited Jack. "Whew! how he does pull though! Must be a whopper this time. I hope I don't lose him!"

Fortune favored the ice fishermen, for both captives were saved, and they proved to be even larger than the first one taken.

So the fun went on. At times it slackened more or less, only to begin again with new momentum. The pile of fish on the ice, rapidly freezing, once they were exposed to the air, increased until at noon they had all they could think of carrying home.

"The rest of the day we'll take things easy, and lay in a stock for Abe here," suggested Tom; for the guide had told them he meant to cure as many of the fish as he could secure, since later on in the winter they would be much more difficult to catch, and it would be a long time until April came with its break-up of the ice.

The boys certainly enjoyed every minute of their stay at the lake.