JULY DAYS 



pie with subdued voices over beds too 

 shallow to hide a minnow or his poised 

 shadow on the sunlit shallows. The 

 sharp eye of the angler probes the green 

 depths of the slowly swirling pools, and 

 discovers the secrets of the big fish which 

 congregate therein. 



The river has marked the stages of 

 its decreasing volume with many lines 

 along its steep banks. It discloses the 

 muskrat's doorway, to which he once 

 dived so gracefully, but now must clum- 

 sily climb to. Rafts of driftwood bridge 

 the shallow current sunk so low that 

 the lithe willows bend in vain to kiss 

 its warm bosom. This only the swaying 

 trails of water-weeds and rustling sedges 

 toy with now ; and swift-winged swal- 

 lows coyly touch. There is not depth to 

 hide the scurrying schools of minnows, 

 the half of whom fly into the air in a 

 curving burst of silver shower before the 

 rush of a pickerel, whose green and mot- 

 tled sides gleam like a swift-shot arrow 

 in the downright sunbeams. 



The sandpiper tilts along the shelving 

 shore. Out of an embowered harbor a 

 wood duck convoys her fleet of duck- 

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