so let's hope he got a bunch
of snapshots that'll show the whole circus," Felix announced.

"How about allowing dogs to roam the woods up here, Tom; isn't it
against the law in this State nowadays?" Josh asked.

"It certainly is," he was informed. "For a good many years chasing deer
with hounds, and using a jack-light at nights to get them, has been
strictly forbidden. Time was when packs of hounds used to be met with
in plenty. Men would start out and hunt deer that way. Then the papers
took it up, and showed the cruelty of the so-called sport, and it was
abolished."

"According to the law anybody is allowed to shoot dogs caught in the
act of running deer, especially in the summer time; isn't that right,
Tom?"

"Yes, that's what we would have had a perfect right to do if we'd had a
gun along. But I don't believe that pack belonged to any one man. They
are dogs that have gone wild, and having gathered together in the
woods, live by hunting."

"I've heard that dogs do go back to the old wolf strain sometimes,"
Josh admitted; "and now that you mention it, Tom, there was a wild look
about every one of the beasts. I even thought they had half a notion to
attack us at one time; but the way Felix kept that paddle flashing
through the air cowed them, I guess."

The fishing was resumed, though all this racket seemed to have caused
the bass to cease taking hold for some time. By skirting the more
distant shores, close to where the water grass and reeds grew, they
finally struck a good ground, and were amply rewarded for the efforts
put forth.

"I think the bass must have their beds on this shoal here," said Tom,
when they paddled back over the place at which success had come to
them. "It's early in the season as yet, and a lot of them are still
around here. They haven't gone out into deep water with their
newly-hatched young ones."

"Is that what they do?" asked Felix, who was not as much of a fisherman
as either of his chums.

"Well, not immediately after the eggs hatch," Tom told him. "The mother
bass is going to keep her swarm of little ones in shallow water, and
guard them until they get to a certain size. Then she darts in among
them, scatters the whole lot, after which she is done with them. They
have reached an age when they must take their chances."

When finally about noon the three came ashore, rather stiff from having
straddled that log for such a length of time, they had a pretty fine
string of fish, tw