THE vSTORY OF PIKE. IQI 



awkward. He looked as if he were nearly all head and 

 fins, with a very slender body indeed. 



Clinging to the under side of this slender bod}' , was the 

 yolk of the egg from which Pike was hatched. At first, 

 Pike lived entirely on this yolk, taking it into his body 

 through his thin skin. Every day the yolk became small- 

 er, and ever}' day Pike grew larger. His head lengthened 

 into a snout, like a pickerel's ; his body thickened ; his 

 fins seemed less clumsy and ridiculous. In seven days 

 after he was hatched, the yolk had disappeared, and Pike 

 had changed to a pretty little pickerel. 



Soon after he was hatched. Pike made a great discovery. 

 He found that by moving his tail quickly from side to side, 

 he could make himself go forward. Afterwards, he found 

 that by giving his tail a different sort of twist, he could go 

 backward, too ; but at first he only went forward. It was 

 great fun to go round and round in the still water. 



But just when he had begun to enjoy himself, a dreadful 

 thing happened, which taught him that too much fun may 

 not be good, even for little pickerel. One of his sisters, 

 who had been hatched a little later than himself, was just 

 beginning to swim about, when a bug, called a water-boat- 

 man, came along, speared her right tfirough the body 

 with his long, sharp beak, and carried her away. 



Pike's eyes were always wide open ; indeed, he had no 

 way to shut them, and it was better so, for fish have many 

 enemies. Pike could learn some things quickly. So, 

 when he saw his sister carried away, wriggling helplessly 

 on that cruel beak, he left off swimming about for fun, and 

 .swam in real earnest for a big, flat lily-pad, under which 

 he stayed until the egg- yolk, on which he had lived ever 

 since he was hatched, was all gone. 



Pike was eight days old when, for the first time in his 

 life he felt hungry. It was plain that he must now de- 

 pend upon himself, and catch something to eat or starve 



