DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 285 



of your rod, over it goes, and whirls out of the myriad 

 bubbles into the edge of the eddy, when, quick as a wink, 

 the water breaks open, a tail flashes in the air and dis- 

 appears, but re-appears to the instant backward motion of 

 your hand, and the victim comes sklittering up the stream, 

 whirling over and over, till your hand grasps him, extri- 

 cates the hook, and slips him into the basket. Poor 

 fellow ! you want to be sorry for him, but every time you 

 try you are glad instead. Standing still, you bait again, 

 and try the other side of the stream, where the water, 

 wiping off the bubbles from its face, is taking toward 

 that deep spot under a side rock. There ! you've got 

 him ! Still tempting these two shores, you take five in all, 

 and then the tribes below grow cautious. Letting your 

 line run before you, you wade along, holding on by this 

 branch, fumbling with your feet along the jagged channel, 

 changing hands to a bough on the left side, leaning on 

 that rock, stepping over that stranded log. Eipping a 

 generous hole in your skirt as you leave it, you come 

 to the edge of the petty fall. You step down, thinking 

 only how to keep your balance, and not at all of the 

 probable depth of water, till you splash and plunge down 

 into a basin waist-deep. The first sensation of a man 

 up to his vest pockets in water, is peculiarly foolish, 

 and his first laugh rather faint ; and he is afterward a 

 little ashamed of the alacrity with which he scrambles for 

 the bank. A step or two brings him to a sand-bank and 

 to himself. But while you are in a scrape at one end of 



