did they do that so soon?” Red wondered.
“They dug up all their old worm diggin’ places and scouted a lot of new territory. They’ve been at it every day. Millie has been kept busy washing the black dirt out of Jack’s pants and shirts.”
Both men laughed.
“I said I’d do it so I will,” Red said. “My last customer next Friday is in Heidelberg. If it’s all right with you, Bert and I will just drive on down to your house that evening. The boys and I can be on the lake early Saturday morning. I’ll bring my little five horsepower motor and we can rent a boat at the lake.”
“Thanks, Red. The boys will appreciate it. We’ll see you Friday evening then.”
“Okay, Jess. Good talkin’ to you,” Red said before they both hung up.
Jess grinned, thinking to himself, “Ole Red got caught in his own big talk.”
He related to Jack what was said and Jack, of course, wanted to call Billy Joe to tell him.
On the phone, Jack related the entire story to Billy Joe in machine-gun fashion, hardly taking a breath until it was all out and said.
“We gotta get our tackle boxes straightened out and cleaned up,” Billy Joe said. “Also, our rods and reels are not the best for real shellcracker fishin’. We need some cane poles.”
“Where we gonna get cane poles?” Jack asked. “Them things cost about a dollar apiece.”
“I’ll buy you some poles,” Jack’s father said on overhearing his dilemma.
“You hear that?” Jack said into the phone. “My daddy’s gonna buy us some poles.”
The next morning, Billy Joe was at Jack’s house before Jack and his family had finished eating breakfast. Jack’s mother made Jack stay at the table until he had finished all his oatmeal, bacon and toast. She offered Billy Joe breakfast but he declined, saying he had already eaten. He did, however, accept a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
“Let’s get this fishing pole thing over with,” Jack’s dad said. “You boys hop in the pickup. I saw some good cane poles down at the hardware store yesterday. They just came in and were selling for seventy-five cents each. Now, I want you to get one for each of you, one for Red and one extra one in case one breaks. That way, when this fishing trip is over, you will each have two good poles. While we’re at the hardware store, I want you to buy four of those already made-up rigs with fishin’ line, hook, lead weight and bobber. You boys can rig up the poles and have them ready to go before Red gets here.”
The boys looked at each other and grinned from ear to ear. This was perfect. How could anything go wrong?
For the remainder of the week, the boys stayed busy.
They attached the made-up fishing lines to the new poles, tying them first about midway of each pole and then tying the line again at the tip of the pole. That way, if a big fish should break the pole tip, they would not lose the hook, bobber and line because it would still be tied in the center of the pole.
After the line was tied to the pole, they wound the remainder of the line on the red wooden ladderlike frame that the made-up line had been on when they bought it. That they secured to the tip of the pole with a rubber band.
“We better do something about these worms,” Billy Joe pointed out. “We can’t keep tripping over each other to get worms out of the keg when we are in the boat.”
“We can get three cans out of the trash barrel,” Jack said.
“Nah, them things are too little and they have sharp edges on ’em,” Billy Joe observed. “Let’s go to the school kitchen and get them to save us three syrup buckets. They empty several of those every day. Syrup buckets have smooth edges and a bail to carry them by. We can punch holes in the top for air and leave the top on when we are just carrying it, not fishing.”
“Why would the school empty so many syrup buckets?” Jack wondered.
“I don’t know for sure,” Billy Joe said, “but I guess college students eat a lot of
R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead)