xamined them with their
telescopic eyes. But one, at least, of the globules escaped their
curiosity, else this story would not be worth telling. The sun shone
down on it through the clear water, and the ripples of the Cowlitz said
over it their incantations, and in it at last awoke a living being. It
was a fish,--a curious little fellow, not half an inch long, with great,
staring eyes, which made almost half his length, and with a body so
transparent that he could not cast a shadow. He was a little salmon, a
very little salmon; but the water was good, and there were flies and
worms and little living creatures in abundance for him to eat, and he
soon became a larger salmon. Then there were many more little salmon
with him, some larger and some smaller, and they all had a merry time.
Those who had been born soonest and had grown largest used to chase the
others around and bite off their tails, or, still better, take them by
the heads and swallow them whole; for, said they, "Even young salmon are
good eating." "Heads I win, tails you lose," was their motto. Thus, what
was once two small salmon became united into a single larger one, and
the process of "addition, division, and silence" still went on.
By-and-by, when all the salmon were too large to be swallowed, they
began to grow restless. They saw that the water rushing by seemed to be
in a great hurry to get somewhere, and it was somehow suggested that its
hurry was caused by something good to eat at the other end of its
course. Then they all started down the stream, salmon-fashion,--which
fashion is to get into the current, head up-stream; and thus to drift
backward as the river sweeps along.

Down the Cowlitz River the salmon went for a day and a night, finding
much to interest them which we need not know. At last they began to grow
hungry; and coming near the shore, they saw an angle-worm of rare size
and beauty floating in an eddy of the stream. Quick as thought one of
them opened his mouth, which was well filled with teeth of different
sizes, and put it around the angle-worm. Quicker still he felt a sharp
pain in his gills, followed by a smothering sensation, and in an instant
his comrades saw him rise straight into the air. This was nothing new to
them; for they often leaped out of the water in their games of
hide-and-seek, but only to come down again with a loud splash not far
from where they went out. But this one never came back, and the others
went on their cou