nd
frequently he felt so good that he leaped clear of the water, and fell
back with a splash that threw shining spray about him, or lashed out
with his tail and sent widening circles of waves rolling from his
lurking place. Then the Kingfisher rattled with all his might, and flew
for the tunnel in the embankment.

Some of these days the air was still, the earth warmed in the golden
sunshine, and murmured a low song of sleepy content. Some days the wind
raised, whirling dead leaves before it, and covering the earth with
drifts of plum, cherry, and apple bloom, like late falling snow. Then
great black clouds came sweeping across the sky, and massed above
Rainbow Bottom. The lightning flashed as if the heavens were being
cracked open, and the rolling thunder sent terror to the hearts of man
and beast. When the birds flew for shelter, Dannie and Jimmy unhitched
their horses, and raced for the stables to escape the storm, and to be
with Mary, whom electricity made nervous.

They would sit on the little front porch, and watch the greedy earth
drink the downpour. They could almost see the grass and flowers grow.
When the clouds scattered, the thunder grew fainter; and the sun shone
again between light sprinkles of rain. Then a great, glittering rainbow
set its arch in the sky, and it planted one of its feet in Horseshoe
Bend, and the other so far away they could not even guess where.

If it rained lightly, in a little while Dannie and Jimmy could go back
to their work afield. If the downpour was heavy, and made plowing
impossible, they pulled weeds, and hoed in the garden. Dannie
discoursed on the wholesome freshness of the earth, and Jimmy ever
waited a chance to twist his words, and ring in a laugh on him. He
usually found it. Sometimes, after a rain, they took their bait cans,
and rods, and went down to the river to fish.

If one could not go, the other religiously refrained from casting bait
into the pool where the Black Bass lay. Once, when they were fishing
together, the Bass rose to a white moth, skittered over the surface by
Dannie late in the evening, and twice Jimmy had strikes which he
averred had taken the arm almost off him, but neither really had the
Bass on his hook. They kept to their own land, and fished when they
pleased, for game laws and wardens were unknown to them.

Truth to tell, neither of them really hoped to get the Bass before
fall. The water was too high in the spring. Minnows were plentiful, a