26 
NATURK STUDY. 
The Story of Pike. 
BY UNCUK NRD. 
CHAPTER V. 
As the fall changed to winter and the water of the lake 
became colder, Pike was less active than he had been 
throughout the summer. He was not so hungry and rare¬ 
ly took the trouble to catch anything to eat. In fact, all 
the creatures that lived in the water became sluggish and 
some grew to be actually torpid, burrowing into the mud 
and sleeping there until spring should come again. 
x\s the cold increased, ice formed over all the surface, 
thin at first, but growing thicker and heavier until it 
seemed as if the lake groaned beneath its weight. There 
were weird sounds on still, cold nights, as the water be¬ 
neath struggled with the va.st burden that lay upon it, 
lifting it and rending it asunder. With loud reports, like 
the discharge of cannon, great cracks opened from the 
center to the shore. Tater the snow fell, covering every¬ 
thing. The ice and the water ceased struggling together, 
and all the lake was still. 
Then, on winter days. Pike often heard above him the 
creaking of ox-sleds and the heavy tread of the oxen. 
Sometimes, too, he heard the merry sounds of coasting ; 
swift sleds plunging down the bank, and the laughter of 
children. 
One day, as he lay half asleep in the dim light that came 
down through the snow and ice above him. Pike heard the 
.scraping of a .shovel and the .sound of axe-blows. Soon a 
hole was cut through the ice and the water rushed upward 
to fill it. Some insects—water bugs and beetles—hurried 
toward the light and rose with the water, as almost always 
happens when a hole is cut through ice in winter. Pike, 
