A Warms a Worm 57 



never seen a scientific fisherman who used thermometers as 

 a fishing guide, who tested every kind of lure and made some 

 of his own, and who constantly studied the movements of the 

 fish for which he fished. I had never before seen a fisherman 

 who kept his boat in the perfect shape you would expect to 

 find only on a navy craft. What was his profession? I thought 

 I knew and was anxious to confirm my opinion. 



As I said good-by and released my hold on his boat, I 

 asked, "By the way, what is your business?" 



The answer was as I expected. "I'm in the engineering de- 

 partment down at Boeing's." 



I ate my lunch as a light breeze drifted the canoe past the 

 big apartments at the south end of the entrance into the bay. 

 Between bites of beef sandwiches and an apple I rounded 

 the log boom and followed the water between the boom and 

 the shore. The ducks and other waterfowl which were al- 

 ways plentiful in winter were now on their breeding grounds 

 and the place was almost deserted. A large heron stood mo- 

 tionless on the logs, a couple of crows hopped back and forth 

 and examined the bark for worms and insects. A coot, or mud 

 hen, moved hurriedly into the marsh growth. Most of its 

 kind had left but it was one of the few that had remained to 

 nest. It would not be many days before I would see the 

 young near the cattails where the old birds would be feed- 

 ing them with a fine weed which they had dived to obtain. 

 The young would be reddish and nothing like the sober 

 parents which were almost entirely black. 



I did not see fishermen again until I had gone through 

 Gadwall Cove and into the channels of the Arboretum. 

 There, as I expected, I found a dozen or more Negroes sit- 

 ting comfortably on the bank, all still-fishing with poles 

 resting in the fork of a stick and with their floats high in the 

 water. I thought that I could learn much from the serenity 

 of these people for I had always been a fly fisherman and a 

 troller because I could not enjoy inaction. Here there was no 



