. The dune country . its roof, like charity, cov-ered a multitude of sins. Sipes declared that he always knew when theold man was gittin ready to smoke fish, if thewind was right. His nickname had been acquired because of theyellow slimy things which he procured from thesluggish river, when the storms prevented suppliesfrom the lake. A prodigious haul of catfish wasmade from the river one spring by a settler, whoturned* the catch over to John to peddle on shares. I loaded up them fish, an I peddled em clearto the Indianny line. I was gone a week, an I soldem all. When I got back that feller sa
. The dune country . its roof, like charity, cov-ered a multitude of sins. Sipes declared that he always knew when theold man was gittin ready to smoke fish, if thewind was right. His nickname had been acquired because of theyellow slimy things which he procured from thesluggish river, when the storms prevented suppliesfrom the lake. A prodigious haul of catfish wasmade from the river one spring by a settler, whoturned* the catch over to John to peddle on shares. I loaded up them fish, an I peddled em clearto the Indianny line. I was gone a week, an I soldem all. When I got back that feller said e hadntnever seen no fish peddled like them was. I tried to get him to talk about some of the char-acters he had met in his travels, but he said hedidnt never ask no questions of nobody. Then,after a long silence, he remarked, reflectively, I [120] CATFISH JOHN guess them fellers that stole the pork probly leftthe country. Catfish John apparently relied on the heavenlyrains, when he got caught in them, to keep him. JOHNS METHOD OF TAKING A BATH clean, and on the golden sunshine that followedthem to remove the traces of these involuntary andinfrequent ablutions. I doubt if he suspected the existence of soap. [121] THE DUNE COUNTRY Such cleanliness as he possessed must have been inhis heart, for it was invisible. I once asked John to allow me to spend a daywith him on one of his peddling trips to the vil-lage, and he cheerfully consented. I dont git lonesome, but it ud be nice to havesomebody long, he said. I was to meet him at five oclock the followingmorning at Sipess place. I inwardly rebelled atthe unseemly hour, but those who would derivethe full measure of enjoyment with Catfish Johnmust not be particular about hours. I rowed along the shore, and was at the trystingplace promptly. Fortunately I had a slight cold,and was thereby better enabled to resist some ofthe odors that I was likely to encounter duringthe day. Sipes was dumfounded when I explained theobject of the ea
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