John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Luke 3:16-17

The small boy was often seen down by the lake with his cane pole. Every evening, just before the supper hour, he would pass by the store fronts in the town with his catch of the day. Sometimes there would be a bass or a northern pike, but usually it was a big carp or a string of suckers. His mother, who relied on the fish to supplement the groceries she was able to buy with their family's allotment of foodstamps, was glad for whatever he brought. Filleted, soaked overnight in salt water, fried in beer batter or baked in butter and cornmeal, they tasted as good as trout in the finest restaurant. It was mid-July when the chamber of commerce announced that it was time to seine the rough fish out of the lake. The tourists were beginning to complain that they weren't catching enough game fish. Something had to be done before they went elsewhere to fish and spend their tourist dollars. Seining day was set for August 1, a Saturday when all the men would be free to help. The dam was opened a few days before, so that the water level would be low, allowing easy access to the fish. They started early in the morning, about 30 men with a dozen boats and nets they had borrowed from the Department of Natural Resources. By evening almost 9,000 pounds of rough fish, carp, redhorse and suckers had been removed from the 45-acre lake and packed into hundred pound boxes for shipment to a fertilizer company in Des Moines. A much smaller amount of game fish, northern pike, large mouth bass, blue gills and crappies, were thrown back. Now there would be good fishing for the tourists. Late that night the small boy got an old bucket from under the porch and dipped it into a milk tank behind the shed in the back yard. The tank was swimming full of carp, redhorse and suckers. He filled his pail with water and fish and carried it through the town and down to the lake. Before the sun came up he had made over a dozen trips, stopping only to watch as the fish made their way through the shallows to the deep. The next day he was back at the lake with his cane pole, fishing in his usual spot.

Author's Note: Alternate Text, Matthew 13:24-30, The Parable Of The Weeds.