Read The Adventures of Jack and Billy Joe for Free Online Page B

syrup.”
    They took out every piece in their tackle boxes and made sure they were clean and in good working order. They also cleaned up their rods and reels in case they decided to try for some largemouth bass. To that end, Jack went to Branch Creek and dip-netted as many crawdads as he could for bass bait.
    It was determined that it would be more convenient for Billy Joe to spend the night with Jack so they could load the car and leave before daylight Saturday morning.
    All day Friday, the sky was overcast as if it were going to rain at any minute, but it never did. Hopefully, the clouds would be gone by Saturday morning. They weren’t. Rain seemed to still be a likely prospect when they loaded Red’s car at five AM.
    “You still sure you wanna do this, boys?” Red asked with a smile.
    “Yes, sir,” they answered together.
    “Okay, let’s do it then,” he said. “We’ll probably have fisherman’s luck anyway. I’ll tell you what that is when we are out of earshot of the women.”
    “We know what it is, sir,” Jack assured him. “It’s ‘an empty gut and a wet butt.’”
    “You do know,” he said and roared with laughter. “Anybody who is old enough to know that and goes fishing with me calls me Red—okay?”
    “Okay, Red,” Billy Joe said with a grin.
    “Yes, sir,” Jack said, not quite able to call him Red yet.
    At the concession stand at the lake, Red rented a boat. Always the salesman, he bought a cup of coffee and chatted with the men standing there. The boys had a chocolate milk and impatiently waited.
    Finally, Red and the concessionaire walked down to the dock for Red to pick out the boat he wanted. The boys started to unload the gear onto the dock.
    Having selected a boat and made sure it had a good anchor and anchor rope and paddles, Red opened his car trunk and took out the outboard motor, closed the trunk and lugged the motor to the boat.
    Jack and Billy Joe loaded all the other gear. They had to carry the worm keg together. It was heavy with worms and rich soil. They both hoped that they could lighten it a lot by using the worms before the day was over.
    Red finished attaching the motor to the back of the boat, placing the gas can at his feet and hooking up the gas line to the motor. He also made sure the safety chain from the motor was hooked into the metal “eye” of the boat.
    “Everybody ready?” Red asked.
    “Yes, sir,” they both answered.
    Red pulled the motor’s start rope and it started on the first try. He shifted into reverse, turned the handle a little to give it more gas and smoothly backed out of the parking place. Cutting back on the gas, the engine slowed so he could shift into forward drive. He again gave the little engine more gas and they headed out into the lake.
    “There should be more light by now but I guess this overcast sky will keep it dark a little longer. I hope it doesn’t start rainin’,” Red said.
    As if in defiance of Red’s wish, a big raindrop hit Jack’s cheek, then another and another until there was a steady rain.
    “What do you wanna do, boys?” Red asked. “It’s your fishin’ trip.”
    “I say we go on,” Jack voted. “The fish don’t know it’s rainin’.”
    “Yeah,” Billy Joe added, “and I’ve heard the fish bite better in the rain.”
    “Okay. Hope we don’t get pneumonia,” Red said.
    Red did slow down a lot so the raindrops wouldn’t sting so bad when they hit soft skin. He also had the boys cover the keg with their tackle boxes to keep from drowning the worms.
    Not knowing this lake, Red was happy that some daylight was filtering through the clouds by the time they had crossed to the backside of the lake.
    “Now, you boys tell me what you’d rather do, search around through the tree stumps and the bank for likely places for shellcrackers or go up the creek that feeds the lake and float back down it with the current. Floatin’ the creek will get us a lot of bream and some shellcrackers but searching the