American Game-Fishes 



Ah, we have found them ! There is a 

 good perch at the shrimp. How he 

 makes the dropper dance ! And now a 

 herring has that, and is out of water in an 

 instant, showing his broad silvery side, and 

 then, making this same breadth serve him, 

 he sways and surges at the leader like a 

 boy's kite in a flawy sou'wester. For a 

 few minutes they take freely, and then 

 are gone; and we go too, meeting them or 

 others again and again at the bends and the 

 reaches. Now the creel is full enough, 

 and the westering sun suggests that we are 

 waited for at home. We cut across a 

 large bow of the creek, looking to find 

 something more dainty to offer than the 

 contents of the creel. Here it is, the 

 sweet-scented arethusa. How abundant 

 it is! Around this rosy centre we put a 

 few blooms of the great blue iris and but- 

 tercups. That will suffice. Well ! This 

 is an odd place for the checkerberry, but 

 here it is, out in the meadows by the salty 

 creek ; red berries and ruddy young leaves 

 ("drunkards" the children call them), 

 hot to look at, hotter yet to taste. 



So along to the place where we hid the 



net beside the dike, and then to the skiff. 



She floats free with the risen tide. When 



we shoot the bridge, down flat and save 



259 



