Chapter 9:
First he found lots of large flat rocks. Then he went downstream of the falls a few yards and scared some fish upstream. He made a dam and stuck some upright sticks in to form a fence. He gathered more rocks and waded upstream a short distance and made another dam.
Five fish were between the falls and the upper dam. Finally he walked up stream a little farther. The largest fish jumped up the falls.
“Oh no, one’s gone,” he said. Conner backed away a little bit. “If I had my backpack I could use my sweatshirt for a net.” He thought for a minute then took the matches and hand sanitizer out of his pocket and put them on a rock by his fire place. Then he took off his pants and tied a knot in each leg. He went carefully back to the upper dam, spread out the waist of his pants and scooped up water, rocks and two fish. He hurried to his fire ring with the dripping pants and wiggling fish.
“Rusty! Rusty! I caught’em,” Conner said. He was terrified of losing his prizes so he rolled the top of his pants down and weighted it with rocks and went to find a sharp rock to clean the fish. He waded up and down the stream looking for some flint. He couldn’t find any so he tried hitting a rock with a bigger rock to make a sharp tool. After several tries he had a fairly sharp rock to use.
He carefully took one fish out and laid it on flat rock and cut its head off and tried to gut it as much as possible. It was pretty messy but he did it. Next he cleaned the other fish. He gave the heads and guts to Rusty.
“These are nasty, but if I eat them fast enough it won’t be too bad,” whined Rusty, his stomach rumbled and he gobbled them up in two bites.