26 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



a winter-long nap deep down in the mud. 

 These many objects are not disturbed by some 

 unusual occurrence and your presence has noth- 

 ing to do with it. Aquatic life, in part, hiber- 

 nates, sleeping as soundly as any jumping mouse 

 on land, but it does not take any fish or turtle 

 so long to wake up, and some of these creatures 

 sleep with one eye open. This is quite evident 

 when a musk-rat goes fumbling down the ditch, 

 poking its nose into everybody's business, if one 

 may judge from its actions. Stupid suckers, 

 our most ungainly fish, except when young, 

 hurry in their awkward way from the matted 

 grass in which they were resting ; a pike, our 

 most graceful fish, will dart like an arrow and as 

 suddenly disappear ; and that sleepy-looking, 

 but not fool of a fish, the mud minnow, will be 

 neither sluggish nor precipitant, but duly me- 

 thodical, and effectually dodge any real or sus- 

 pected danger. The musk-rat means no harm. 

 Its journey down Water street, as we might 

 call it, is a peaceful errand ; but wild life, 

 whether in the water or in the air above it, is 

 not given to running unnecessary risks. Per- 

 haps a musk-rat might feel carnivorously in- 



