No fish could stand that, once they got an
eye on it."
But evidently no second fish cast an eye on the irresistible charm, and
Enoch was unwilling to wait for further luck longer than was necessary
to cook the fish and eat it. But during the day Jonas trolled whenever
the water made trolling possible, hopefully spitting on the hook each
time he cast it over, casting always from the right hand and muttering
Fish! Fish! Fish! three times for each venture. Yet no other fish
responded to Na-che's charm that day.
But the river treated them kindly. If their strength had been equal to
hard and steady rowing they might have made up for the lost miles. As
it was they knocked off at night with just the number of miles for the
day that Milton had planned on in the beginning, and were still a day
behind their schedule. Milton grew no worse, though he was weaker and
obviously a very sick man. A light snow fell during the night but the
next morning was clear and invigorating.
They encountered two difficult rapids on the fourth day. The first one
they portaged. The trail was not difficult but in their weakened
condition the boat and poor Milton were heavy burdens and it took them
three times as long to accomplish the portage as it would have taken
had they been in normal condition.
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