46 OLD BLACK BASS 



so much strangely unmoved. Swarthy 

 kept after her. Finally she turned on him, 

 as from time immemorial the pacifist has 

 turned when cornered, and turning, gave 

 Swarthy a taste of his own medicine. 



It was an hour later that the struggle 

 ended ; but when it was over, both Swarthy 

 and Fusser floated lifeless on the surface. 

 For fish are no wiser than men : when nature 

 would allow them to live they often elimi- 

 nate themselves. 



Old Black Bass did not witness the con- 

 flict. He was following a secret search for 

 the distant sunfish. Since discovering the 

 first one, he had returned again and again, 

 and always with success. And the ease with 

 which he procured food deepened his con- 

 tempt for the others. 



But great pride usually comes just before 

 a fall. And so now. In the very midst of 

 his own foraging grounds Old Black Bass 

 saw a stranger loitering ; and seeing him was 

 on the instant furiously angry. He tore vi- 

 ciously forward, bent on utter destruction. 



The stranger was one of his own kind, a 

 great black bass of five summers, confident 

 and strong. On scales he would have 



