148 Winkle: the Eel-Man 



sideration. I will not attempt to describe 

 him. The truth would not be accepted, and 

 I will not spoil a good story by using false 

 colors. I can only hope that his strange 

 physique will shine through what I shall 

 tell about him. 



I have said that the last of the Perri- 

 winkles had a glimmer of higher aims than 

 servitude, and while yet a lad had acquired 

 such freedom as he wished, becoming a self- 

 sustaining trapper, fowler, and fisherman. 

 It was as the last that he pre-eminently ex- 

 celled. He alone, of all the men who lived 

 and loafed near the creek, knew Crosswicks 

 Creek thoroughly. It seemed as if he must 

 have felt with his hands or feet, or both, the 

 whole bed of the stream, from the river, 

 where it ended, up to the first mill-dam, a 

 distance of about eight miles. On one oc- 

 casion, when with Winkle, I remember he 

 stopped his boat suddenly, and, thrusting an 

 oar to the bottom, showed me how deep was 

 the water at this point, it was low tide at 

 the time, and remarked, " Cur'us, but, lad, 

 there's a walnut-stump down there that's 

 three feet across. Once a time the creek ran 

 over yander," and he pointed to a long row 



