One or two of his employees , who had been discharged by him on what they deemed insufficient grounds , helped to deepen the impression that he was an unjust and arbitrary man , merciless to all offenders , and intolerant of the slightest infringement of his cast-iron rules . Dan Phillips had been on the pond ever since sunrise . The trout had risen well in the early morning , but as the day wore on , growing hotter and hotter , they refused to bite , and for half an hour Dan had not caught one . He had a goodly string of them already , however , and he surveyed them with satisfaction as he rowed his leaky little skiff to the shore of the creek . `` Pretty good catch , '' he soliloquized . `` Best I 've had this summer , so far . That big spotted one must weigh near a pound . He 's a beauty . They 're a good price over at the hotels now , too . I 'll go home and get my dinner and go straight over with them . That 'll leave me time for another try at them about sunset . Whew , how hot it is ! I must take Ella May home a bunch of them blue flags . They 're real handsome ! '' He tied his skiff under the crowding alders , gathered a big bunch of the purple flag lilies with their silky petals , and started homeward , whistling cheerily as he stepped briskly along the fern-carpeted wood path that wound up the hill under the beeches and firs . He was a freckled , sunburned lad of thirteen years . His neighbours all said that Danny was `` as smart as a steel trap , '' and immediately added that they wondered where he got his smartness from -- certainly not from his father ! The elder Phillips had been denominated `` shiftless and slack-twisted '' by all who ever had any dealings with him in his unlucky , aimless life -- one of those improvident , easygoing souls who sit contentedly down to breakfast with a very faint idea where their dinner is to come from . When he had died , no one had missed him , unless it were his patient , sad-eyed wife , who bravely faced her hard lot , and toiled unremittingly to keep a home for her two children -- Dan and a girl two years younger , who was a helpless cripple , suffering from some form of spinal disease . Dan , who was old and steady for his years , had gone manfully to work to assist his mother .
Though he had been disappointed in all his efforts to obtain steady employment , he was active and obliging , and earned many a small amount by odd jobs around the village , and XXXXX helping the Carleton farmers in planting and harvest .
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