178 WAKE-ROBIN 
woods, sat crouched upon the root of a tree a few 
feet from the water, apparently completely non- 
plussed by the unexpected appearance of danger on 
the land side. All retreat was cut off, and he 
looked ‘his fate in the face without flinching. I 
slaughtered him just as a savage would have done, 
and from the same motive, —I wanted his carcass 
to eat. 
The mid-afternoon sun was now shining upon 
the lake, and a low, steady breeze drove the little 
waves rocking to the shore. A herd of cattle were 
browsing on the other side, and the bell of the 
leader sounded across the water. In these solitudes 
its clang was wild and musical. 
To try the trout was the first thing in order. | 
On a rude raft of logs which we found moored at. 
the shore, and which with two aboard shipped about 1 
a foot of water, we floated out and wet our first fly, 
in Thomas’s Lake; but the trout refused to jump, | 
and, to be frank, not more than a dozen and a half 
were caught during our stay. Only a week pre- 
vious, a party of three had taken in a few hours all 
the fish they could carry out of the woods, and had 
nearly surfeited their neighbors with trout. But 
from some cause they now refused to rise, or to 
touch any kind of bait: so we fell to catching the 
sunfish, which were small but very abundant. Their 
nests were all along shore. A space about the size 
of a breakfast-plate was cleared of sediment and 
decayed vegetable matter, revealing the pebbly bot- 
tom, fresh and bright, with one or two fish suspended 
