326 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



of all animals man alone is able to put on or take 

 off an individuality at will, changing his counten- 

 ance with his garment and his mind with his oc- 

 cupation. The Natty Bumpo of today may be 

 the natty dry goods clerk of tomorrow, assuming 

 the Bumpo with his fishing togs and making his 

 talk of many ponds fit the clothes. 



The fishermen add a touch of picturesque 

 geniality, of excitement even to the pond, being 

 as occasional in its daily life as the crossing of a 

 deer or an otter or the circling of an osprey in 

 summer. Any one of these causes a momentary 

 stir, a local disturbance down in the depths among 

 the regular occupants of the place, but after all 

 it is but a momentary and local one, and the great 

 business of the place goes on just the same near 

 by the spots where the hand of the grim reaper 

 is busy removing prominent citizens. For in my 

 pond the pickerel are surely the prominent cit- 

 izens, the aristocracy, for they are the largest 

 and strongest and they live directly off their fel- 

 low fishes, which constitutes an aristocracy in 

 any community. Minnows, perch, bream and 

 mullet alike are busy assimilating vegetable mat- 

 ter, mussels, worms, insects and small crustacse, 

 merely to form themselves either directly or in 



