l, murmuring mystery of the little
stream one knew when one was young!

[Illustration]

Ah, little river, little river, but I am coming back again. Once
more I push away the long grass and the swinging boughs, and
look into your face. Again I dabble my bare feet, and scoop up
my straw hat full, and watch the tiny streams run down. Again I
stand, bare and small and trembling, wondering if I can swim
across. And--listen, little river--again at the same old place I
shall cut me the willow wand, and down the long slope to the
certain place I knew I am going to hurry, running the last
quarter of a mile in sheer expectation, but forgetting not the
binding on of the tough linen line. And now I cast my gaudy
float on that same swinging, wimpling, dimpling eddy, and let it
swim in beneath the bank. And--No! Can it be? Have I here, now,
again, plainly in my hands, the strange and wonderful creature,
the gift of the little stream? Is this its form, utterly
lovable? Is this its coat, wrought of cloth of gold and silver?
Are these diamonds its eyes?... Oh, little river, little river,
give me back this gift to keep for ever! Why take such things
from us?... All I have I will give to you, if you will but give
back to me, to have by me all the time, this little fish from
the pool beneath the boughs. I have hunted well for him, believe
me, hard and faithfully in many a place, but he is no longer
there. I find him no longer, even in the remotest spots I
search.... But this is he! This, in my hands, here in actual
sight, is my first, my glorious, iridescent, radiant prize! Pray
you, behold the glittering!

But along this little river there were other things when the
leaves grew brown. In those low, easy hills strange creatures
dwelt. Birds of brown plumage and wondrous, soul-startling burst
of wing. Large gray creatures, a foot long or longer, with light
tread on the leaves, and long ears that went a-peak when you
whistled to them. Were ever such beings before in any land? For
the pursuit of these, it seems, one must have boots with copper
toes, made waterproof by abundant tallow. There must be a vast
game-bag--a world too large for a boyish form--and strange
things to eat therein, such as one sees no longer; for on a
chase calling for such daring-do it may be needful that one walk
far, across the hills, along the little river, almost to the
Delectable Mountains themselves. Again I see it all. Again I
follow through the hills that