Free THE Nick Adams STORIES by Ernest Hemingway Page A

whether it’s safe to take her the trout.”
    â€œI’ll take them to her.”
    â€œNo. They’re too heavy. I’ll take them through the swamp and to the woods in back of the hotel. You go straight to the hotel and see if she’s there and if everything’s all right. And if it is you’ll find me there by the big basswood tree.”
    â€œIt’s a long way there through the swamp, Nicky.”
    â€œit’s a long way back from reform school, too.”
    â€œCan’t I come with you through the swamp? I’ll go in then and see her while you stay out and come back out with you and take them in.”
    â€œAll right,” Nick said. “But Íwish you’d do it the other way.”
    â€œWhy, Nickie?”
    â€œBecause you’ll see them maybe on the road and you can tell me where they’ve gone. I’ll see you in the second-growth wood lot in back of the hotel where the big basswood is.”
    Nick waited more than an hour in the second-growth timber and his sister had not come. When she came she was excited and he knew she was tired.
    â€œThey’re at our house,” she said. “They’re sitting out on the screen porch and drinking whiskey and ginger ale and they’ve unhitched and put their horses up. They say they’re going to wait till you come back. It was our mother told them you’d gone fishing at the creek. I don’t think she meant to. Anyway I hope not.”
    â€œWhat about Mrs. Packard?”
    â€œI saw her in the kitchen of the hotel and she asked me if I’d seen you and I said no. She said she was waiting for you to bring her some fish for tonight. She was worried. You might as well take them in.”
    â€œGood,” he said. “They’re nice and fresh. I repacked them in ferns.”
    â€œCan I come in with you?”
    â€œSure,” Nick said.
    The hotel was a long wooden building with a porch that fronted on the lake. There were wide wooden steps that led down to the pier that ran far out into the water and there were natural cedar railings alongside the steps and natural cedar railings around the porch. There were chairs made of natural cedar on the porch and in them sat middle-aged people wearing white clothes. There were three pipes set on the lawn with spring water bubbling out of them, and little paths led to them. The water tasted like rotten eggs because these were mineral springs and Nick and his sister used to drink from them as a matter of discipline. Now coming toward the rear of the hotel, where the kitchen was, they crossed a plank bridge over a small brook running into the lake beside the hotel, and slipped into the back door of the kitchen.
    â€œWash them and put them in the ice box, Nickie,” Mrs. Packard said. “I’ll weigh them later.”
    â€œMrs. Packard,” Nick said. “Could I speak to you a minute?”
    â€œSpeak up,” she said. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
    â€œIf I could have the money now.”
    Mrs. Packard was a handsome woman in a gingham apron. She had a beautiful complexion and she was very busy and her kitchen help were there as well.
    â€œYou don’t mean you want to sell trout. Don’t you know that’s against the law?”
    â€œI know,” Nick said. “I brought you the fish for a present. I mean my time for the wood I split and corded.”
    â€œI’ll get it,” she said. “I have to go to the annex.”
    Nick and his sister followed her outside. On the board sidewalk that led to the icehouse from the kitchen she stoppedand put her hands in her apron pocket and took out a pocketbook.
    â€œYou get out of here,” she said quickly and kindly. “And get out of here fast. How much do you need?”
    â€œI’ve got sixteen dollars,” Nick said.
    â€œTake twenty,” she told him. “And keep that tyke out of trouble. Let her go home and keep an eye