WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 35 



stealthy tread of fox or rabbit, but which he, in his nervous 

 excitability, magnified into the unpleasant proximity of 

 bear or wild cat. His frequently repeated "Hist!" "What's 

 that!" had become monotonous, and I was passing off into 

 peaceful slumber when I was startled by a yell from my 

 timid friend which could only have been born of genuine 

 fright induced by actual contact with some tangible object. 

 If his alarm was not justified it was excusable, for our 

 couch had been invaded by a prowling woodchuck, who 

 had been attracted by the fragrance of the discarded frag- 

 ments of our evening feast. This intrusion (when the in- 

 truder took flight, for he stood not upon the order of his 

 going, but went at once) was followed by profound silence 

 on the part of my friend and by blissful unconsciousness 

 on my own part, until a full chorus of forest minstrels and 

 the slanting rays of the morning sun admonished me that it 

 was time to try the virtue of a morning cast. 



And I cast, but nothing came of it. There was not a rip- 

 ple on the surface of the water, and as far as I could reach 

 it seemed like casting upon a floor of glass. Every moment 

 the sun glare was extending, and before I had become en- 

 tirely hopeless of a rise, the whole lake shone like a great 

 mass of burnished silver. I was soon encouraged, however, 

 by a "break" some hundred feet beyond my cast As there 

 was neither boat nor raft available, the "break" might as 

 well have been a hundred miles away as where it was. I 

 did my best to entice the sportive brutes shoreward, but it; 

 was like "calling spirits from the vasty deep," they 

 wouldn't come. The more I cast the more they jumped, 

 but always at an unapproachable distance. Of course it was 

 provoking, and of course I looked about for some mode by 

 which I could circumvent and turn the tables upon my 

 sportive tantalizers. I discovered near by two dry logs 

 barely two which, if properly joined together, would suf- 

 fice to bear me up if carefully manipulated. Withes were 

 procured, hastily twisted and used in the conventional way 

 known to all old woodsmen. A few minutes sufficed to 

 finish the work after a fashion, and while the fish were still 



