EARLY MORNING. 205 



They just went on as a matter of course, until they had 

 the minnies cornered, or thought they had 'em. It was 

 a mighty funny sight, I tell you, boy, and one I only saw 

 that once." 



" If turkeys should do this, why shouldn't plovers do 

 the same ? " I asked, forgetting that he disliked interrup- 

 tions. 



" All I know is, it doesn't seem strange in the turkeys, 

 and same way I've seen rock-fish move like soldiers on a 

 school of minnies; but for the plovers to do the like 

 seemed all out of place, somehow, just as anything is apt 

 to when it is unexpected like. "Well, to go on with my 

 story where I left off : So far as I could tell, the fish had 

 got ahead of the plovers by buryin' themselves in the 

 sand. I was so took up with the way things turned out, 

 that I raised up, forgettin' about the plovers, and went 

 to look for them fish ; the plovers put off, and I looked 

 all 'round. There was no minnies in the water, certain, 

 and so I dug down a bit, and, sure enough, the cunnin' 

 things had gone down as much as an inch in the wet 

 sand." 



By this time we were at the landing, and Uz's narra- 

 tive came to an abrupt conclusion, for the time being, and 

 we were too busy fixing the boat and other matters to talk 

 much. On our return towards home, however, over the 

 dewy path of some hours ago, but now hot and dusty, I 

 started the conversation by remarking that the common 

 mud-minnow of our meadow-ditches buries itself in the 

 mud to escape danger. 



" I know it," replied Uz, i( and that reminds me that 

 I've something more to say about those plovers and min- 

 nies. Perhaps you've never watched little plovers very 

 closely, and so don't know 'em as well as I do. Well, 

 they have the habit of huntin' minnies that are left in 



