BROWN WATERS 



desire an assurance that my autonomy 

 will be respected"! It is to be feared 

 that the sounder the psychology and 

 logic, the surer the licking! Perhaps 

 things are better as now they are 

 ordered, but at least it cannot be amiss 

 to recall with gratitude the warmth 

 which suffuses a boy at being talked to 

 and treated as a reasonable being, 

 delivery for him from a bondage that 

 makes "the happy days of childhood" 

 not the least miserable we spend in a 

 world scarcely overflowing with joyous- 

 ness. 



But memory is able to respond to still 

 greater demands. Do you not recall the 

 middle joint and tip of an old bait rod, 

 fitted with a cross-piece of wood in lieu 

 of reel, and the July day when it jerked 

 ashore two dozen fingerlings? There 

 was one tremendous chap who weighed 

 nearly quarter of a pound, with such a 

 yellow belly. He came from a hole under 

 the bank where the water must have 



15 



