FISHING FOR CRAPPIE 



crappie will make a meal for several persons, 

 and only the hoggishly inclined will keep on 

 fishing after they have caught a good string. 

 Contemplation, as a matter of fact, is one of 

 the true beauties of still-fishing just to loaf 

 and invite one's soul; to take it easy, and 

 not care particularly whether you are going 

 to get a big string of fish or not. There is 

 everything around you to encourage this 

 dolce far niente feeling. There is a world 

 about you, if you will just take a little notice 

 of it. Pictures and dreams all spread out 

 before you, and music, too, of subtlest sort. 



In the morning around the lakes you can 

 see the sooty terns, with their wandering, 

 aimless flight, dipping and shifting about the 

 shores. Occasionally they give their quaint, 

 shrill, skreeling cry as they pass. Long lines 

 of blackbirds cross over, sometimes in per- 

 fect silence, sometimes with a reassuring 

 " clack, clack, " from one of the travellers. 

 An old blue heron may slant past like a patch 

 of smoke blown from a cannon's mouth. 

 And the " flicker," or golden-winged wood- 

 pecker, with his scallopy curves, flies by with 

 steady wing. Over the water the wind wrin- 



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