FOREST AND STREAM 
8 
the water cleared and the pickerel had gulped 
down his prey, nothing could be seen of the sur¬ 
vivors. They had been scattered to the four 
winds of the lake it seemed. But Wisdom es¬ 
caped. Foremost in the crew, he yet was missed 
by a hair and instantly dove into the thick of the 
weeds where he lay half-stricken, his heart palpi¬ 
tating, his whole tiny consciousness permeated 
with the demon Fear. But the large pickerel 
did not again show up, though in the days that 
were to follow Wisdom lay low and was more 
than ordinarily watchful and alert. 
Wisdom soon became aware of one singular 
fact that stamped itself irrevocably on his minute 
'brain. It was the instinct that other larger fish 
prey upon smaller fish, even as he 
preyed upon the water parasites, 
with such set determination, such 
vim, and now there grew in his life 
a watchfulness, indeed the personi¬ 
fication of the name. It was a qual¬ 
ity that grew in him the older he be¬ 
came; and many times, though he 
was set upon by larger fish, many a 
time by mighty muscallonge, yet he 
always managed to get away un¬ 
scathed. He knew the world of the 
water now almost entirely. Above 
him there was light or there was 
dark. When darkness lay over the 
water he subsided into quietude and 
rest lying very still wherever chance 
found him; but as a rule he stayed 
very close to his home territory. 
So now then came winter with its 
enveloping sheet of ice above; and 
the cold of the north set in, pene¬ 
trating and bitter in its firm clutch 
upon all things; and with the com¬ 
ing of this season Wisdom found 
himself sluggish, and not at all hun¬ 
gry. On warmer days he would be¬ 
stir himself, when the relieving light 
of the sun lent a gray glow even 
to the water, through the heavy 
snow that lay on the ice above. The 
larger, depredatory fish, upon these 
warmer days came inshore out of 
the deep to prey upon the minnows 
that then also bestirred themselves, 
for then also the parasites that 
clung to the vegetation bestirred 
themselves, and the various succu¬ 
lent crustaceans wiggled even so lit¬ 
tle to betray their hiding places. On these days, 
instinct, alertness, and ever-present watchful¬ 
ness were qualities to be carefully considered by 
young Wisdom; for there was always the per¬ 
vading fear that intruders were in the neighbor¬ 
hood and meant him grievous harm. Thus was 
the winter passed and once more throughout the 
Minnesota county Spring spread her innumerable 
witcheries; the world became one of rejuvenation 
and delicate greenery; the loon shrilled out again 
his devilish laughter down the far reaches of the 
lake; birds began to arrive, and warm day suc¬ 
ceeding warm day replaced the months of deso¬ 
lation that had been winter. Now then with the 
removal of the ice, Wisdom began to know life 
from still another angle. Experience opened a 
measurable book of knowledge be f ore him. 
There were nooks and byways he knew and a 
thousand others that he did not know and that 
he wished now insatiably to know. 
never again return there but must hunt a home 
for themselves, in among the weeds, beside the 
rocks, or run inshore where the shallows were a 
protection against the inroad of the larger prey¬ 
ing fishes. 
Quite much alike the spawning preparations 
and aftermath were the attentions given to re¬ 
production by the large-mouth black bass. The 
father and mother of Old Wisdom had in the 
days gone by paid court to each other. There 
had been some rivalry in the case, but the male 
parent fish was a strong individual, and after 
some compromising, the bonds of holy fish 
matrimony were duly adjusted and the ways of 
Nature were fulfilled. Wisdom appeared from 
a tiny round egg as large as the 
head of a pin. He was burdened 
down with a round lump, forward of 
the stomach, the yolk-sac in ques¬ 
tion and upon this his voracious sys¬ 
tem drew for nourishment in no lit¬ 
tle quantity. This yolk-sac had 
veins and pulsed with life much 
the same as the rest off the body. 
The life of the young fishes was 
spent close in the spawning hole 
which lay in about two feet of wa¬ 
ter, in between some protecting lily- 
pads. Over the little fish hovered the 
parent, his fins trembling in an ele¬ 
ment of fighting aroused by the 
singular and protecting spirit of pa¬ 
renthood; he was intent upon letting 
nothing disturb the objects of his 
creation. Wisdom grew quite rapid¬ 
ly for a small fish and in three 
week’s time the yolk-sac had dwin¬ 
dled alarmingly, but one might also 
have noted the more rounded pro¬ 
portions of the body that fed now 
so hungrily upon that precious fluid. 
Wisdom, as I have noted, grew rap¬ 
idly. Others, his kindred, were in 
varying degrees of health and effi¬ 
ciency, though the major portions of 
them were weak and were undoubt¬ 
edly destined to give up their lives 
in that battle for existence, so'fixed 
and relentless in Nature—the sur¬ 
vival of the fittest. Thus is it that 
some of a family of fish live 
through, seeming to have the greater 
portion of the united male and fe¬ 
male parents’ strength while others 
have been utterly neglected, unconcentrated 
upon. 
Wisdom was early an adventurous sort of a 
fellow and he was destined to be one of the larg> 
est of his kind in secluded Sand Lake. He was 
the first of 'that little family to forage abroad for 
fare when the yolk-sac had been depleted, and 
when hunger set the vitals burning in the clamor 
to be appeased be was the earliest to mouth the 
succulent parasites that gyrated through the wa¬ 
ter in a thousand ludicrous attitudes and pos¬ 
tures. Gradually others, his brothers and sis¬ 
ters, acquired the taste and not a day but that 
they were away from the hole, braver and braver 
as they preyed upon the queer wriggling, ani¬ 
mated affairs that tasted so well and filled one 
so full of warm blood and contentment. Now 
happened a queer thing to this little foraging 
family. Instinctively they had come to rely up¬ 
on the parent fish above them as their protector. 
His fluctuating shadow would lie always upon 
the bottom of the spawning bed by day, or would 
shift and be gone for some time, when hunger 
drove him in quest of fare. But otherwise, 
throughout the day his shadow cast downward 
from above bred in the young the security de¬ 
manded, banishing all encroaching fear. But 
now for one whole day the little family lay in the 
spawning bed terrified. The shadow was gone. 
Only up above the sun shone down, golden and 
penetrating, but the shadow did not come back. 
A day passed; a night; and the next day arrived 
and yet no shadow fell mellow and compromis¬ 
ing upon the floor of the spawn bed. The par¬ 
Old Wisdom Was a True Entomologist. 
ent fish, having fulfilled his duty in the eyes of 
omnipotent Nature, had departed, nevermore to 
return! 
Lazily fanning the water one day a large pick¬ 
erel swam inshore near the home of the young 
basses of which Wisdom was the now apparently 
accredited leader. This family had gradually 
come to forget the fact that they were parentless, 
and were full-fledged barbarians—cannibals as 
far as that goes. They still continued their op¬ 
erations against the myriads of water beings that 
clung along the sides of the vegetation. Now it 
happened that our friend the pickerel noted this 
little band on forage bent- He stopped perfect¬ 
ly still, only his caudal fin holding his body half 
afloat. Scarce discernible he backed into a cozy 
obscure nook and lay in wait. On came the 
bass minnows, and still on. Then there was a 
lightening-like action in the water; a living bolt 
hit their far from formidable array, and when 
