42 OLD BLACK BASS 



crunch of sharp teeth and slid down 

 through warm darkness. 



Water grew colder. But the fish were 

 not dismayed. For with a knowledge that 

 came to them from out the far past they 

 knew that this was in the order of nature. 

 Just as geese honk wedge-shaped to the 

 South with changing wind, so the bass 

 moved toward the deep. 



Gregarious they were, as is the prairie 

 dog or the beaver; and this instinct kept 

 the school together. Far out in the water 

 was a break in the wide wall of a great stone 

 fence, and here they made their winter 

 quarters. 



Then began an ordeal of endurance 

 which nature must have considered her 

 Great Eliminator. Just as with men civil 

 service examinations are held to weed out 

 the less capable and select the most efficient 

 for placement, so nature would use winter 

 on the school of bass to eliminate the weak 

 and select those of greatest hardihood to 

 perpetuate the species. 



Sidie was the first to go. The ailment 

 which had not been severe enough to elimi- 

 nate her when the water was warm and the 



