his wife stared with arms
a-kimbo, and both appeared to be wondering if they had capital enough to
begin such a course with, or arithmetic enough to carry it through. It
was sailing by dead reckoning to them, and they saw not clearly how to
make their port so; therefore I suppose they still take life bravely,
after their fashion, face to face, giving it tooth and nail, not having
skill to split its massive columns with any fine entering wedge, and
rout it in detail;--thinking to deal with it roughly, as one
should handle a thistle. But they fight at an overwhelming
disadvantage--living, John Field, alas! without arithmetic, and failing
so.

"Do you ever fish?" I asked. "Oh yes, I catch a mess now and then when
I am lying by; good perch I catch."--"What's your bait?" "I catch shiners
with fishworms, and bait the perch with them." "You'd better go now,
John," said his wife, with glistening and hopeful face; but John
demurred.

The shower was now over, and a rainbow above the eastern woods promised
a fair evening; so I took my departure. When I had got without I asked
for a drink, hoping to get a sight of the well bottom, to complete my
survey of the premises; but there, alas! are shallows and quicksands,
and rope broken withal, and bucket irrecoverable. Meanwhile the right
culinary vessel was selected, water was seemingly distilled, and after
consultation and long delay passed out to the thirsty one--not yet
suffered to cool, not yet to settle. Such gruel sustains life here, I
thought; so, shutting my eyes, and excluding the motes by a skilfully
directed undercurrent, I drank to genuine hospitality the heartiest
draught I could. I am not squeamish in such cases when manners are
concerned.

As I was leaving the Irishman's roof after the rain, bending my steps
again to the pond, my haste to catch pickerel, wading in retired
meadows, in sloughs and bog-holes, in forlorn and savage places,
appeared for an instant trivial to me who had been sent to school and
college; but as I ran down the hill toward the reddening west, with the
rainbow over my shoulder, and some faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear
through the cleansed air, from I know not what quarter, my Good Genius
seemed to say--Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day--farther and
wider--and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving.
Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care
before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the n