JOHNNY DARTERS. 29 



often edged with patches of white. The cheeks 

 are deep blue, the breast deep orange; while the 

 expanded fins are gorgeous in scarlet, indigo, and 

 crimson. The female, as is usually the case when 

 the male of the species is resplendent, is plainly 

 colored, — a speckly green, with no trace of blue 

 or orange. 



When the War of the Rebellion broke out, there 

 were some good people who were anxiously look- 

 ing for some sign or omen, that they might know 

 on which side the *' stars in their courses " were 

 fighting. It so happened that in a little brook in 

 Indiana, called Clear Creek, some one caught a 

 rainbow darter. This fish was clothed in a new 

 suit of the red, white, and blue of his native land, 

 in the most unmistakably patriotic fashion. There 

 were some people who had never seen a darter 

 before, and who knew no more of the fishes in 

 their streams than these fishes knew of them, by 

 whom the coming of this little " soldier-fish" into 

 their brooks was hailed as an omen of victory. Of 

 course, these little fishes had really " always been 

 there." They were there when America was dis- 

 covered and for a long time before, but the people 

 had not seen them. The warblers lived, you re- 

 member, in Spalding's woods at Concord ; but 

 Spalding did not know that they were there, and 

 they had no knowledge of Spalding. So with the 

 darters in Spalding's brooks. Still, when the day 

 comes when history shall finally recount all the 

 influences which held Indiana to her place in the 

 Union, shall not, among greater things, this least 

 of little fishes receive its little meed of praise? 



