130 IN SPRING. 



essential and unessential requirements of shad- 

 fishing in Crosswicks Creek, were favorable, and 

 to-morrow, Saturday, I was to be one of the 

 party. A mere onlooker, to be sure, but what 

 mattered that ? I had heard of shad-fishing all 

 winter long, and now, being seven years old, 

 was allowed to be one of the party. O tedious 

 Friday ! Would school never be dismissed ? 

 O endless Friday night ! Had the sun forgotten 

 to rise ? And all Saturday it rained ! That hor- 

 rid wooden Indian, of which we have heard, 

 fairly grinned with fiendish delight as it faced 

 the leaden east and received the driving rain with 

 open arms. It never moved an inch from dawn 

 to sunset. Yes, once it moved. During a lull I 

 slipped out-of-doors, and bribed an older lad to 

 stone the obstinate vane. One sharp pebble 

 mutilated the head-dress and sent the Indian 

 spinning about, regardless of wind or weather ; 

 but when at rest again the face was looking east- 

 ward. O pestiferous weathercocks that point 

 to the east on Saturday ! * 



Why vanes should have been so generally 

 shaped like a crowing chanticleer as to give rise 

 to the more common name of " weathercocks " 

 is not easily determined. Of a few explanations 

 seen or heard, none had a modicum of common 

 sense. When and where, too, the first vane was 

 set up, whether .cock or arrow, is an unsolvable 



