Tin-: story of FIKIC. 27 
too, turned that way, for the liglit was pleasant after so 
much darkness. 
He heard voices that he had heard before, and that 
might perhaps have made him think of summer, if he had 
not been a pickerel. The boy and girl lived in houses 
not fai apart, and their fathers had come to the lake to fish 
and had brought the children with them. Pike knew 
nothing about fishing, as yet, except his own way of catch¬ 
ing minnows, and all that happened that da}^ was new and 
strange to him. 
From the ice above came the sounds of footsteps, of the 
low, slow speech of men and the eager questions of chil¬ 
dren. Then a shiner was lowered into the water with a 
hook through its body and a long line attached. The 
shiner swam round and round, sometimes tugging at the 
line and sometimes leaving it slack above him. 
Pike had not been hungry for a long time, but the sight 
of the shiner swimming about gave him thoughts of eat¬ 
ing. The shiner was larger than the minnows, but it 
looked good and Pike eyed it wistfully. Presentl}^ he 
came nearer, and made up his mind. The shiner was too 
big to be taken at a mouthful, so Pike seized it by the tail 
and tried to swallow it gradually. 
He had got nearly as far as the point of the hook, when 
there was the sound of running on the ice, the line tight¬ 
ened, and Pike found himself drawn rapidly upward. He 
swam rapidly round and round, tugging at the line and 
trying to let go of the fish that seemed so much too big for 
him. As he came to the top of the water, with the ice 
walls all around him, he made a last desperate jerk and the 
.shiner was pulled awa}^ from him. As he hurried back 
under the ice, the boy said excitedly : 
“ Oh, what a big fellow ! It was almost as long as my 
arm ! ’ ’ 
The girl laughed merrily. It was not the first time she 
