THE PIKE
"What a fine specimen, Timmy! Indeed you were, lucky. How firm and solid the meat is! But, my friend," added the worthy man, after a short pause, "it was not what I call right to go fishing on the Lord's day, especially at the very time when the service was held. You know, Timmy, the third commandment, don't you?"
The farmer winced slightly at this mild reproach.
"Father mustn't be angry with me," said he, at length. "Indeed, I was just thinking if it might not be well to keep the fish until to-morrow, and ask Father to come and take dinner with us. Father would do me a great favor by coming."
"Thank you, my friend. I am greatly obliged to you. Indeed, I shall be here."
So they talked a little back and forth about weather and winds and the crop, whereupon the minister took leave and returned home.
Sitting in his cosey arm-chair before the open window, Father Jonas, softly fanned by the mild summer breeze, fell into a day-dream, from which he was aroused when supper-time drew near, and he felt hungry. Reflecting upon the scant provision in the cupboard on the wall, he came to think of Timmylim's pike. Such a fish! What if he had a bite of pike for supper, and what if John, his servant boy, skipped over to the brook and tried his luck? Dear him, how such a fish would taste, with butter-gravy and fried potatoes!
"John!" called Father Jonas, bending forward
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