CONFIDENTIAL REVELATIONS. 113 



fly across the little current, and if he does not take as beau- 

 tiful a string of river trout as can be found in these parts, 

 let him set it down to the score of accident, for the trout 

 are there in the warm days of August. If he has a curi- 

 osity to know what there is above these Little Falls, let him 

 try his angle-worms in the brook just over the ridge, and he 

 will find out. I claim to have discovered these choice fish- 

 ing places some seasons since, and have kept them for my 

 own private use and amusement. Nobody seemed to know 

 of them. When the trout refused to be taken elsewhere, I 

 have always found them here, abundant, greedy, and ready 

 to be taken by any decently skillful effort. I regard these 

 places as in some sort my private property, and I mention 

 them privately and in confidence to the reader, trusting that 

 my right will be respected. 



We finished our evening meal while the sun was yet above 

 the western hills, and sat with our pipes around a smudge, 

 made upon the broad flat rock, which recedes with a gentle 

 acclivity from the shore, where the Bog River enters the 

 lake, looking out over the stirless waters. It was a beauti- 

 ful view, so calm, so still and placid, and yet so wild. The 

 islands seemed to stand but clear from the water, to be 

 lifted up, as it were, from the lake, so perfectly moveless and 

 polished was its surface. On a grassy point to the right, 

 and a hundred rods distant, two deer were quietly feeding, 

 while in a little bay on the left, a brood of young ducks were 

 sporting and skimming along the water in playful gyrations 

 around their staid and watchful mother. On the outstretched 



