ut as one iterates a time-worn truism.
He sat on a girder of the Limberlost bridge, and scraped the black muck
from his boots in a little heap. Then he twisted a stick into the top
of his rat sack, preparatory to his walk home. The ice had broken on
the river, and now the partners had to separate at the bridge, each
following his own line of traps to the last one, and return to the
bridge so that Jimmy could cross to reach home. Jimmy was always
waiting, after the river opened, and it was a remarkable fact to him
that as soon as the ice was gone his luck failed him. This evening the
bag at his feet proved by its bulk that it contained just about
one-half the rats Dannie carried.

"I must set my traps in my own way," answered Dannie calmly. "If I
stuck them into the water ony way and went on, so would the rats. A
trap is no a trap unless it is concealed."

"That's it! Go on and give me a sarmon!" urged Jimmy derisively. "Who's
got the bulk of the rats all winter? The truth is that my side of the
river is the best catching in the extrame cold, and you get the most
after the thaws begin to come. The rats seem to have a lot of burrows
and shift around among thim. One time I'm ahead, and the nixt day they
go to you: But it don't mane that you are any better TRAPPER than I am.
I only got siven to-night. That's a sweet day's work for a whole man.
Fifteen cints apace for sivin rats. I've a big notion to cut the rat
business, and compete with Rocky in ile."

Dannie laughed. "Let's hurry home, and get the skinning over before
nicht," he said. "I think the days are growing a little longer. I seem
to scent spring in the air to-day."

Jimmy looked at Dannie's mud-covered, wet clothing, his blood-stained
mittens and coat back, and the dripping bag he had rested on the
bridge. "I've got some music in me head, and some action in me feet,"
he said, "but I guess God forgot to put much sintimint into me heart.
The breath of spring niver got so strong with me that I could smell it
above a bag of muskrats and me trappin' clothes."

He arose, swung his bag to his shoulder, and together they left the
bridge, and struck the road leading to Rainbow Bottom. It was late
February. The air was raw, and the walking heavy. Jimmy saw little
around him, and there was little Dannie did not see. To him, his farm,
the river, and the cabins in Rainbow Bottom meant all there was of
life, for all he loved on earth was there. But loafing in town on rainy