74 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



least unmeaning movements, and strange groupings of the 

 small fry, which darted to and fro in the clear shallows within 

 two yards of my feet; or marking the brief circling ripples, 

 wrought by the morning swallow's wing, and momently subsi- 

 ding into the wonted rest of the calm lake. 



How long I stood there musing I know not, for I had fallen 

 into a train of thought so deep that I was utterly unconscious 

 of everything around me, when I was suddenly aroused from 

 my reverie by the quick dash of oars, and by a volley of some 

 seven barrels discharged in quick succession. As I looked up 

 with an air, I presume somewhat bewildered, I heard the loud 

 and bellowing laugh of Tom, and saw the whole of our stout 

 company gliding up in two boats, the skiff and the canoe, to- 

 ward the landing place, perhaps a hundred yards from the spot 

 where I stood. 



" Come here, darn you," were, the first words I heard, from 

 the mouth of what speaker it need not be said " come here, 

 you lazy, snortin, snoozin Decker lend a hand here right stret 

 away, will you? We've got more perch than all of us can 

 carry and Archer's got six wood-duck." 



Hurrying down in obedience to this unceremonious mandate, 

 I perceived that indeed their time had not been misemployed, 

 for the whole bottom of the larger boat was heaped with fish 

 the small and delicate green perch, the cat-fish, hideous in its 

 natural, but most delicious in its artificial shape, and, above all, 

 the large and broad-backed yellow bass, from two to four pounds 

 weight. While Archer, who had gone forth with Garry only in 

 the canoe, had picked up half a dozen wood-duck, two or three 

 of the large yellow-legs, a little bittern, known by a far less ele- 

 gant appellative throughout the country, and thirteen English 

 snipe. 



" By Jove !" cried I, " but this is something like where the 

 deuce did you pick the snipe up, Harry and, above all, why 

 the deuce did you let me lie wallowing in bed this lovely morn- 

 ing?" 



"One question at a time," responded he, "good Master Frank ; 

 one question at a time. For the snipe, I found them very un- 

 expectedly, I tell you, in a bit of marshy meadow just at the 

 outlet of the pond. Garry was paddling me along at the top 

 of his pace, after a wing : tipped wood-duck, when up jumped 

 one of the long-billed rascals, and had the impudence to skim 

 across the creek under my very nose ' skeap ! skeap !' Well, 



