eyes and stickle backs and huge gaping 



mouths surged out at them from coverts of „_, __ 



77}& Sforv 



rock and kale and sea-moss ; and from the vV, 

 bottom itself, where they looked like bits of ^LS^^COt^\ 

 innocent mud, flatfish and flounders leaped 

 up into the very midst of the passing shoal. 

 But their life in the quick waters of the 

 brooks had made these little smolts like 

 bundles of tempered steel springs. They 

 were quicker far than the big savage ban- 

 dits that looked so much more dangerous 

 than they really were ; and our own little 

 smolt found no difficulty in dodging them 

 and hiding under a frond of kelp till they 

 had surged by. So the shoal passed on, still 

 following the almost imperceptible flavor of 

 their own river, till they were nearly twenty 

 miles out at sea, and up from the bottom 

 rose a ridge of rocky hills covered with wav- 

 ing sea growth. Here the fever suddenly left 

 them and the shoal scattered, each to his own 

 little den, just as they had done in the shal- 

 lows far away in the green wilderness. 



A new and wonderful life had begun for 

 Kopseep, and the very best thing about it 



