THE BULLY OF THE OSWEGATCHIE 



family, came floating down the stream and he 

 promptly grabbed it. Then came a sharp prick in 

 his lip and something was pulling him out from 

 under the sod. He braced and twisted and threshed 

 about, but all in vain. Up he went out of the water, 

 all the time doing fancy somersaults such as he 

 had never attempted before. A moment later he 

 struck the water with a splash and was soon safely 

 hidden under the sod again. From his hiding- 

 place he watched that worm come floating past him 

 again and yet again, but he had learned caution. 

 Now that he looked closely, he saw that the worm 

 was fastened to the end of a string, and a little 

 later he discovered that this string was tied to a 

 stick which was in the possession of some creature 

 that walked along the bank of the stream. Later 

 on he learned that this strange animal was a small 

 boy and that all members of this species were his 

 enemies. Whether or not he ever relized that he 

 owed his life to the fact that the boy had lost the 

 last of his store hooks and was using a bent pin that 

 day, no one knows. 



All that summer the Bully lived in the brook ; but 

 when the days grew shorter and it began to freeze 

 he moved with his friends into the river. That 

 winter, when the river was frozen over except in 

 shallow places where the current was swift, he had 

 a narrow escape from a mink. He was talking with 

 a trout much older and larger than himself about 

 the comparative merits of worms and flies as food 



