One Saturday morning as Mother was checking over her food supply in the cupboard, she noticed her cheese was being nibbled away. “I must have a mouse getting into this cupboard,” the children heard her say. “I can’t imagine how he gets in and out, but I’ll set a trap and put it right beside the cheese.”
The next day more cheese was gone, but the trap was empty. “He’s a wary mouse, but I’ll catch him yet! Maybe we should see if any of the school children have an extra cat.”
The following day more cheese was nibbled, but the trap was still empty. This time, Mother looked more closely at the marks on the cheese. “Hm, mhh! This doesn’t look like the tiny marks the teeth of a mouse would make. I wonder —! Girls, all three of you, please come here.”
In a moment, Naomi, Helen and Peggy Jean stood beside her and heard her say, “Girls, I’m afraid that what I thought was a mouse has been one of you! Who has been nibbling on the cheese?”
Three heads immediately shook and three voices said, “I haven’t!”
“Naomi, open your mouth!” Mother placed the cheese against her teeth, but no marks fit.
“Now Helen.” The marks were still too small.
“Peggy Jean.” Very slowly, Peggy Jean opened her lips. The nibble marks fit exactly! Mother had caught her mouse!
That night at bedtime, Mother talked about it again to the girls. She spoke of how hard it is to admit when we do wrong and how Satan prompts us to lie if he possibly can.
“You know, girls, this becomes a way of life for many people,” Mother said. “When they sin, they try to hide their sin and deceive people with their lies. Very often others are fooled, but God always knows all about it. He has said, ‘He that [hides] his sins shall not prosper.’ Someday they will have to face God, and as He reveals their sin, it will fit exactly!”
Peggy Jean especially squirmed uncomfortably, remembering how her teeth marks had fit against the cheese.
Mother continued, “All three of you girls need to receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Father and I are praying that you will do it soon, for God has said, ‘Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.’”
One morning, as Uncle Bob was looking out the window, the girls heard him say, “It’s not so cold today. Matter of fact, it’s downright nice outdoors. I’m wondering if there are any fishermen in this family ’sides m’self?” Uncle Bob seemed to be talking to himself, but three pairs of ears perked up.
“I’d like to go! I’d like to go!” came from three different directions.
Mother looked up from some school papers she was correcting. “It’s quite a hike down to the end of the lake. Maybe it’s too far for Peggy Jean —” but Uncle Bobby was smiling and pinching Peggy’s cheek. The whole family knew Peggy Jean was a favorite with him, for when she was a baby, she would go to him before anyone else.
“Sure she can go. I’ll be taking a sled with a box on it for the fish, and she can ride on the way down at least. Dress good and warm, girls. Nice as ’tis, it’ll feel cold out on the lake.”
In no time, all were bundled up and on the way down the swamp road to the lake. Uncle Bob was pulling a sled with a big box on it that held his fishing lures and lines, a pair of pliers, some scraps of bacon for fish bait and a thing that looked like the biggest corkscrew the girls had ever seen. Uncle Bob called it an ice auger. Over his shoulder, he had a long-handled chisel.
Soon they were on the lake, and the girls were glad for warm mittens and scarves. They took turns pulling the sled. Peggy didn’t ride very much, for the box seemed so full of things. Besides, it felt warmer to keep running along with the rest.
When they reached the end of the lake where it joined a river, Uncle Bob told them that the river went zigzagging through marshy swamps and woods until it reached beautiful, big Leech Lake, four miles away.
Uncle Bob stopped beside a stick poking up out of the ice. “Here we are, girls. See this stick here? Now look away over there about fifty feet — see that other one just like it? The net is under the ice between these two poles, fastened to a rope. First I have to chop a hole around both of these poles. The hole has to be just big enough to pull the net and fish through.”
When Uncle Bob felt he had a large enough hole, he began pulling on the rope attached to the pole nearest to him. Soon the end of the fish net was coming out of the icy water - and then the fish that were caught in the net. Beautiful whitefish and tullibee, Uncle Bob called them. When he had worked each one out of the net, he tossed them into his box until it was nearly full.
Then he walked quickly over to the other pole and pulled on the rope over there. The net began to slither back into the icy water below the ice. After it was all out of sight, he made the ropes secure on the two poles again.
“There now, by dark these holes will be frozen over again. Now, Peggy Jean, want to climb in the box and ride with the fish?”
Peggy took one look at the big fish flopping in the box and shook her head, “No!”
“We’re going to smoke these fish in that little smokehouse you saw me build,” Uncle Bob explained as they hurried across the lake. “But now we’re going to stop where I know it’s good walleye fishin’, and I think it’s right here.” Out came his chisel and auger, and he soon had a hole about ten inches across into which he dropped his fish line with a hook baited with a piece of bacon rind.
It wasn’t long before a sharp tug almost snapped the line out of his hand. The girls watched breathlessly as he pulled his line steadily upward. Out of the hole he drew a nice big walleye. In a few moments he had another, and then it was time to hurry on their way home, for fingers and toes were getting cold.
Mother was pleased to have the fresh fish for dinner. It was soon sputtering in her frying pan and turning a beautiful golden brown. How good it smelled to the hungry girls.
That afternoon they watched Uncle Bob clean and prepare the rest of the fish for the smokehouse, and they wondered if the smoked fish could possibly taste as good as the fresh walleye had.
As Peggy Jean snuggled into bed that night, she thought of how each day seemed full of surprises and learning something new. What would tomorrow bring?