it. I had resolved
not to jerk quite so hard this time; but in my excitement I pulled much
harder than was necessary to hook the trout and again swung it out and
against the wall of the dam. With a vigorous squirm the fish threw
himself clean off the hook; but by chance I grabbed him in my hands, as
he did so, and threw him over the dam among the raspberry briars--safe.

"Well done again," said Theodora.

In a trice I had rebaited my hook and dropped in a third time; but as
before the vagrant school had moved on. They had seemed alarmed for the
moment by the commotion, and darted off with accelerated speed. But we
now had more confidence that they would return and again settled
ourselves to wait.

"Oh, I want to catch one!" exclaimed Ellen.

"I wish we had more hooks," said Kate. "We would fish at different
points around the pond."

After about the same interval of time and in the same odd, migratory
manner, the beautiful school came around four times more in succession;
and every time I swung out a handsome one. Kate then took the pole and
caught one. Then Ellen caught one; and afterwards Theodora took her turn
and succeeded in landing a fine fellow which flopped off the dam once,
but was finally secured. In the scramble to save this last one, however,
I rolled a loose stone off the dam into the water; and either owing to
the splash made by the stone, or because the trout had completed their
survey of the pond, they did not return. We saw nothing more of the
school although we had not caught a fifth part of them.

After waiting fifteen or twenty minutes we went along the shore on both
sides of the pond but could not discern them anywheres. It is likely
that they had gone back to the larger pond, two miles distant.

At that time, the very odd circumstances attending the capture of these
trout did not greatly surprise me; for I knew almost nothing of fishing.
But within a considerable experience since, I have never seen anything
like it.

We laid the nine large trout in a row on the dam, side by side, and then
strung them on a forked maple branch. They were indeed beauties! The
largest was found that night to weigh three pounds and three quarters;
and the smallest two pounds and an ounce. The whole string weighed over
twenty-two pounds. Going homeward, we first took turns carrying them,
then hung them on a pole for two to carry.

Our folks were at supper when we arrived at the house door with our
cedar and ou