Hopkins's Pond. 15 



ble and complain of their lot, and are ever 

 ready to impugn the motives and the 

 methods of any man who is prosperous. 

 Jerry, who was about the dullest boy in 

 school, went West, and has made a for- 

 tune in railroads, so that it seems as though 

 almost anybody could do that ; but Henry, 

 who was one of the very best scholars, is 

 an extremely respectable clerk in Jerry's 

 employ, and he has never as yet perceived 

 opportunity standing out in as bold relief 

 as a fly in the milk. Tom was drowned 

 at sea, and no one seems to know what 

 has become of George. Everything has 

 changed excepting Hopkins's Pond, but 

 to-day the water pours over the dam as 

 of old, and the cricket's sharp chirp finds 

 its way through the duller sound. The 

 muskrat makes a rippling wake in the 

 moonlight, but I do not know whose boy 

 eagerly marks its course now. Pickerel 

 still suspend themselves under the lily- 

 pads, and a bullhead will pull any one's 

 cork 'way down under water on almost any 

 warm, misty evening. The pond that once 

 entered so much into the boys' life is now 



