156 Recreations of a Sportsman 



the man got up to unliook his fish, looking at 

 the anglers with an air of mild surprise. 



" Diving ! " 



" That 's what I said," retorted the man. 

 " Ain't you ever heard of the divin' cows of 

 Plumas? " 



The anglers confessed that they were from 

 the benighted lowlands of the Atlantic Slope. 



" Oil, I see" responded the farmer hooking 

 on a live grasshopper, which he fished out of his 

 pocket, and casting, as though that explained 

 almost any difficulty. 



" Do you mean to say that the cows dive? " 

 again questioned the first angler, as though he 

 doubted the evidence of his senses. 



" You don't see their heads, do you? They 've 

 got heads," and the man grinned. " There 's one 

 up," and he pointed to the nearest cow, which 

 came up, lifting her head out of the water, her 

 mouth full of the succulent eel grass, explaining 

 the stopping of the fishing. 



" Yes," continued the man, " them 's the real 

 thing ; the only breed of divin' cows in the world. 

 I s'posed everybody had heard of the divin' cows 

 of Plumas. You see they are fond of that grass ; 

 they see it and they jest naturally put their 

 heads down and fill their mouths with it and 

 yank it off, and of course, a lot goes down- 

 stream. But you can't stop 'em ; they 've beo' 1 

 doin' that for ages, ever since cows first came 



