Ame Green’s Fish Story

“I’d ruther fish fur pickerel than any fish there be,”

Said Amos Green in Stokes’ Store the other night to me;

“Why durn it all there ain’t no fish in this hull bloomin’ state

That’s got the snap a pick’rel haz when takin’ holt the bait.

An’ speshly in the mornin’ when the weather’s cool an’ right

I tell you mister pickerel will put up quite a fight.

Will give you all you want to do to git him in the boat,”

Said Amos Green a’scratchin’ uv the whiskers round his throat.

“That’s queer,” Jed Martin says to Ame, who scratched away serene,

“I’ve been around the crick a lot an’ I hev never seen

You out a-ketchin’ pickerel the way you say you’ve done;

Fact is I’ve never seen you there a-ketchin any one.”

“I said,” says Amos, ‘twixt his chaws, “I’d ruther ketch ‘em, Jed,

I didn’t say I hed, did I?” An’ Martin shook his head.

“I thought ‘twuz true to change the style,” said Amos with a stretch;

“Describin’ in a different way, the fish I didn’t ketch.”

July 20, ‘10