152 
SI REDONS. 
trout and siredons. The latter they caught with 
a hand-net or a trout-hook. 
“You understand what siredons are, I pre- 
sume?” remarked Mrs. Maxwell, when I asked 
her for the details of the excursion. 
“ Oh, yes, I suppose so,” I said. “ They are 
some of those alcohol specimens, ain’t they ? A 
variety of fish, I believe. I never thought to ask 
you which jar they were in, and may not be able 
to describe them. I don’t remember, either, what 
you said their common name is, or whether they 
are good to eat.” 
“ Good to eat ! Snakes and lizards ! What 
are you thinking of?” 
Her face was a picture of disgust and astonish- 
ment. That the animal kingdom might contain 
something I had not heard of before, began to 
dawn dimly upon my mind. 
“ Why,” I starnmered, “ isn’t siredon one of the 
scientific names for shiners, pumpkin-seed, or 
something of the sort?” 
There was a pause, suggesting that the depth 
of this freshly-revealed ignorance was hopelessly 
profound. 
“ Shiners, indeed ! ” at last she said. “ Under- 
stand, siredons have legs ! ” 
“ Legs?” 
“Yes, legs! In many respects they resemble 
fish — they are long and thin like them — but they 
