larger than the iron was. Then taking an iron tube or band out of his
pocket, he drove the iron rod firmly into it for the distance of about
half an inch, leaving the other end of the tube open. Into this he
forced the end of the small green cane and having made it firm he had
a rod about ten feet long.

"There," he said, "I have a rod long enough to reach a good deal more
than half way through either one of my big canes. It isn't iron except
at the end, and it doesn't need to be," and with that he thrust the
end of the bit of iron into the fire to heat.

"Now, Tom," he said, "you must burn the canes out while I do something
else."

I wonder if there is any boy who needs a fuller explanation than the
one which Sam has already given, of what was going forward. There may
be boys enough, for aught I know, who never went fishing in their
lives, and so do not know what canes, or reeds, or cane-poles, as
they are variously called, are like. I must explain, therefore, that
the canes which Sam proposed to burn out, were precisely such as those
that are commonly used as fishing rods. These canes grow all over the
South, in the swamps. They are, in fact, a kind of gigantic grass,
although the people who are most familiar with them do not dream of
the fact. The botanists call them a grass, at any rate, and the
botanists know. Each cane is a long, straight rod, tapering very
gently, with "joints," as they are called, about eight or ten inches
apart. These joints are simply places where the cane, outside, is a
little larger than it is between joints, while inside each joint
consists of a hard woody partition, across the hollow tube, which is
otherwise continuous. Sam's plan was simply to burn these partitions