Village E3: Survival of the Human Spirit Read Online Free Page B

the only disturbance on the
calm surface of the water. It only took about five seconds until, in a quick
splash, a fish took the beetle.
    Next, he threw in a grub and watched
it sink slowly in the clear water. He saw a fish take it, then swim away. This
is what his grandpa called chumming. His grandpa always said, "You give
them a free meal, then offer them a meal with a hook in it."
    John slowly swung his line out over
the water, then gently dropped his baited hook right where the fish had just
surfaced. Before it had a chance to even sink a foot, he had a fish on. It was
only about eight inches long, but that was the size he was after. He couldn't
take a chance with bigger fish, because he didn't want to risk losing his hook.
    He took the fish off, then put it on his
homemade stringer, which was fashioned from a long thin tree branch, with a
fork at the end. By running the limb up through the gill plate, and out through
the mouth, he was able to place the fish in the water. He put a heavy rock on
the other end of the limb, keeping the fish in the water which allowed it to
stay alive until he was ready to eat it.
    Picking up his fishing pole, he
baited his hook again, dropping his line in the same spot, where he had just
caught the fish. Almost immediately, he had another one on. This one was bigger,
so rather than trying to get it out quickly, he let it tire itself out,
fighting against the limber pole. It was a nice one, over a foot long. The two
fish together would be enough for a meal. Gathering his pole and his fish, he
headed back to his fire pit. Finding the fishing easy, he wished that he had
tried it sooner.
    Fish remains attract flies, so John
walked about thirty yards away to gut the fish. After gutting them, he took the
fish over to the pool of water, and gave them a rinsing to get the blood and
what remained of the guts off. The smaller fish would fit in the pan that was
part of his cooking kit. The largest of his catch would have to be cooked over
the fire. He had done this a few times already, with fish he had speared.
    For his larger meals, he had two
large rocks, which were about a foot tall. He would build a fire between the
rocks, and then run a stick through the fish. By laying the stick with the fish
on it across the rocks, he was able to cook the fish slowly. After one side
started to cook, he would turn it. It took longer to cook than in a pan, but he
could cook and eat the smaller one while the big one was cooking.
    John knew that he couldn't keep
taking fish out of this one pool of water, and in time it would be fished out,
so he spent much of his time searching for other sources of food. Today, after
eating, he was going to do some searching along the beach. For now though, he
needed to get the fire going. It had been days since the last rain so that
meant a fire should be easy to start.
    Starting a fire using just sparks
took some practice, but he was pretty good at it now. He discovered a type of
tree that often had loose sections of bark.
After removing the bark, on the inner side, were many hair-like fibers. Taking his knife, he scraped those until he
had a handful. He kept some of it stored in his hut at all times.
    After cooking and eating what might
be his only meal of the day, John headed for the beach. He was going to try
something different today. With him, he had his newly fashioned spear, which
was an improvement on his original sharpened stick. He had made a crude
spearhead out of a piece of a clam shell. It wasn't perfectly shaped, but it
was sharp, thanks to hours of hard work.
    He stopped beneath a tree that was
covered with flower blooms. Many of the blooms had fallen to the ground. Gathering
up several hands full that had fallen on the ground, he stuffed them in one of
his socks. He was wearing his boots. He never wore them anymore, except when he
went in the water. Some of the coral was sharp enough to cut flesh, and he
couldn't take a chance on getting an infection if he was