96 Sporting Sketches 



cautiously turn over some sunken trash. A little 

 nipper darts backward for deep water, followed by 

 an angry growl. She comes down, too, and prowls 

 along the margin, her bright eyes scanning every 

 possible bit. 



" Here, quick! under this see his horns! " she 

 excitedly whispers, and I steal a hand over a bit of 

 bark and press it down. Someway the crayfish 

 wiggles into my hand, and, not having a sure hold, 

 I hastily sweep him ashore. By unlucky chance he 

 lands upon his back only a few inches from the 

 water. Like a flash she grabs him and promptly 

 shrieks, " Oh ! he bites take him off ! " 



A big blue claw is savagely nipping a finger, but 

 I soon make it let go. Then the finger goes into 

 her mouth, the hook goes into the crayfish, the 

 crayfish into the water; and, apparently, into the 

 midst of a bully bass. A great fight follows, but 

 when the fish is flung far up the bank, it proves a 

 pound lighter than her grand fellow. However, it 

 is a fine fish quite large enough to make one of 

 the free folk positively genial. 



The short cut homeward is easy ; but wonderful 

 is thy tact, O woman ! Just as we reach the one 

 stage where people can see us, she suddenly grows 

 too tired to carry those fish one step farther. 



Nay, reader, it is not false pride, nor anything 

 small ; it is bigger and broader than even the liberal 

 code of the free folk, this thing which suddenly 

 causes the sore finger to throb and the sturdy little 

 arm to lose power. It is the stuff which later makes 

 the self-sacrificing mother; it new prompts her to 

 surrender the prizes, to meekly fall to the rear with 



