nce of the shrunken stream did not strike the two boys
until they had traveled for some distance up the bank of the run.
Presently they came to a spot they recognized as a favorite trout-hole. A
great boulder jutted out from one bank, while opposite it, on the other
shore, stood or had stood, a mammoth hemlock. These obstructions had
formed a little pool, and the current had eaten away much earth from
beneath the roots of the great tree, forming an ideal lurking place for
trout. And in this dark, deep, secure retreat great fish had lived since
time immemorial. More than one huge trout had the two chums taken here.
Never was the pool without its giant occupant, for when one big fellow was
caught another moved in to take his place, the run being fully stocked
from year to year by the smaller fishes from the spring brooks, like the
vanished rivulet above. But now no trout hid under the hemlock's roots.
They stood high and dry, while the puny stream that trickled beneath them
would hardly have covered a minnow. The two boys looked at each other in
dismay.

"You don't suppose the entire stream is like that, do you, Lew?" asked
Charley. "There won't be a trout in it if it is." Then, after a pause, he
added: "What in the world do you suppose has become of the trout, anyway?"

His question was soon answered, at least in part. Continuing along the
bank of the run, the boys presently came to one of the deepest pools in
the stream. In the crystal water they could see many trout, for there were
no hiding-places in the pool at this low stage of water. Some of the fish
were large. At the approach of the boys the frightened trout darted
frantically about in the pool, vainly seeking cover.

Around the margins of this pool were innumerable little tracks in the
earth. "Raccoons!" exclaimed Lew. "There must have been dozens of them
here."

But not until he found some little piles of fish-bones near the farther
end of the pool did he grasp the significance of the tracks. He stopped in
amazement.

"Look here, Charley," he called, pointing to the piles of fish-bones.
"Those coons have been catching and eating trout." Then, after a moment's
thought, he added, "If this stream is like this in April, what will it be
in August? There will be hardly a drop of water or a trout left. Why, this
brook is ruined for years as a trout-stream--maybe forever. And it used to
be absolutely the finest trout-stream in this part of the mountains."

Depres