44 THE DOCTOR'S STOEY. 



x 



said, while the fisherman sleeps, and all he gets in that way 

 is clear gain. 



*' Well, I rose early the next morning to go ont with the 

 old fisherman to his gill-nets. It would have done you good, 

 as it did me, to see how merry every living thing was. The 

 birds, how jolly they were, and how refreshing the breeze 

 was that came stealing over the water, making one feel as if 

 he would like to shout and hurrah in the buoyancy, the 

 brightness, and glory of the morning. But I am not going 

 to be poetical about the sunrise, and the singing birds. We 

 went out upon the river just as the sun came up with his 

 great, round, red face, for there was a. light smoky haze 

 floating above the eastern horizon, and threw his light like 

 a stream of crimson flame across the water ; and the mea- 

 dow lark perched upon his fence stake, the blackbird upon 

 his alderbush, the brown thrush on the topmost spray of the 

 wild thorn, and the bob-o'-link, as he leaped from the mea- 

 dow and poised himself on his fluttering wings in mid air, 

 all -sent up a shout of gladness as if hailing the god of the 

 morning. 



" We came to the nets and began to draw in. You 

 ought to have seen the fish. There were pickerel from four 

 to ten pounds in weight, white fish, black bass, rock bass, 

 Oswego bass, and pike by the dozen ; and, what was a 

 stranger to me, a queer looking specimen of the piscatory 

 tribes, half bull-head, and half eel, with a cross of the 

 lizard. 



" ' What on earth is that ?' said I, to the fisherman. 



