568 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK 



ruminates on the extinction, or silent removal of these child- 

 ren of the forest/he may think of the simple eloquent words 

 of the chief to his companions, the last he uttered : " I will 

 die, and you will go home to your people, and, as you go 

 along, you will see the flowers, and hear the birds sing ; but 

 Pushmuttaha will see them and hear them no more; and 

 when you come to your people they will say, 'Where is Push- 

 muttaha?' and you will say, 'He is dead:' then will your 

 words come upon them, like the falling of the great oak in the 

 stillness of the woods^ 



As he resumes his walk and crosses the little brook that 

 "goes singing by," he remembers what he has read of the 

 Turks, who built their bowers by the falling water, that they 

 might be lulled by its music, as they smoked and dreamed of 

 Paradise. But when the hoarse roar of the creek, where it 

 surges against the base of the crag it has washed for ages, 

 strikes his ear, or he hears it brawling over the big stones, his 

 step quickens, and his pulse beats louder — he is po true 

 angler if it does not — and he is not content until he gets a 

 glimpse of its bright rushing waters at the foot of the hill. 



Come forth, my little rod — " a better never did itself support 

 upon" an angler's arm, — and let us rig up here on this pebbly 

 shore! The rings are in a line, and now with this bit of 

 waxed silk we take a few hitches backward and forward over 

 the little wire loops which point in opposite directions at the 

 ends of the ferules, to keep the joints from coming apart ; for 

 it would be no joke to throw the upper part of the rod out of 

 the butt ferule, and have it sailing down some strong rift. 

 The reel is on underneath, and not on top, as those Bass- 

 fishers have it, who are always talking of Fire Island, New- 

 port, and Narragansett Bay. 



What shall my whip be ? The water is full, I'll try a red 

 hackle, its tail tipped with gold tinsel ; for my dropper, I'll 



