EPISODES 



521 



side, there poised itself for a few moments, then ap- 

 proached the worm, and carried it in its mouth over the 

 side next to me, with a care and gentleness so very 

 remarkable as to afford me much surprise. I repeated 

 the experiment six or seven times, and always with the 

 same result. Then changing the bait, I employed a 

 young grasshopper, which I floated into the egg-bed. 

 The insect was removed, as the worm had been, and two 

 attempts to hook the fish proved unsuccessful. I now 

 threw my line with the hook bare, apd managed as before. 

 The Sunny appeared quite alarmed. It swam to one side, 

 then to another, in rapid succession, and seemed to enter- 

 tain a fear that the removal of the suspicious object might 

 prove extremely dangerous to it. Yet it j^radually ap- 

 proached the hook, took it delicately up, and the next 

 instant dropped it over the edge of the bed. 



Reader, if you are one who, like me, have studied 

 Nature with a desire to improve your mental faculties, 

 and contemplate the wonderful phenomena that present 

 themselves to the view at every step we take in her wide 

 domain, you would have been struck, had you witnessed 

 the actions of this little fish, as I was, with admiration 

 of the Being who gave such instincts to so humble an ob- 

 ject. I gazed in amazement at the little creature, and 

 wondered that Nature had endowed it with such feelings 

 and powers. The irrepressible desire of acquiring knowl- 

 edge prompted me to continue the experiment ; but with 

 whatever dexterity I could in those days hook a fish, all 

 my efforts proved abortive, not with this individual only, 

 but with many others which I subjected to the same 

 trials. 



Satisfied that at this period the Sunfish was more than 

 a match for me, I rolled up my line, and with the rod 

 gave a rap on the water as nearly over the fish as I could. 



The Sunny darted off to a distance of several yards, 

 poised itself steadily, and as soon as my rod was raised 



