THE STORY OF PIKE. 215 



play. They were small and barefooted ; they waded about 

 in the shallow water. Sometimes thej' stood still, holding 

 hands, and digging their toes in the warm sand. Suddenly 

 the girl exclaimed : 



" Oh ! what a little pickerel ! " 



Pike was not more than three steps awa\-, liy the tall 

 grass. 



"You just keep right still, and see me catch him ! " 

 said the boy. 



He moved carefully toward Pike, bending slowly over 

 and lowering his hand. He made a quick plunge, and both 

 thought the pickerel was surely caught, for they had not 

 seen it move at all ; but the chubby hand was empty. The 

 girl laughed, and the boy looked crestfallen. 



Presentl}^ after looking steadily in the water, they saw 

 Pike scarcely three feet away. The boy was a plucky lit- 

 tle fellow, and made another attempt. But Pike disap- 

 peared as before, leaving them to wonder why thej^ did 

 not see him go. 



The girl began to laugh again, but suddenly stopped 

 to cry out : 



" Look ! there he is ! " 



Pike never went very far, and the bo}' tried over and 

 over, but the pickerel was not to be caught that day, or 

 for manj^ a long day after. 



Now that nearly all of the highest mountains in Ameri- 

 ca and Europe have been scaled, mountain climbers are 

 turning their attention to the higher peaks of the Hima- 

 layas. The record is now held by Dr. William H. 

 Workman, who last summer ascended to the summit of a 

 peak of Chogo Lungma in the western Himalayas, a 

 height of 23,394 feet above sea level. Mrs. Workman 

 reached a height of 22,567 feet, the highest point ever 

 reached by a woman. 



