e with such small consolations in kind
as a friendly Providence may put within his reach.

Some solace may be found, on a day of crisp, wintry weather, in the
childish diversion of catching pickerel through the ice. This method of
taking fish is practised on a large scale and with elaborate machinery
by men who supply the market. I speak not of their commercial enterprise
and its gross equipage, but of ice-fishing in its more sportive and
desultory form, as it is pursued by country boys and the incorrigible
village idler.

You choose for this pastime a pond where the ice is not too thick, lest
the labour of cutting through should be discouraging; nor too thin, lest
the chance of breaking in should be embarrassing. You then chop out,
with almost any kind of a hatchet or pick, a number of holes in the ice,
making each one six or eight inches in diameter, and placing them about
five or six feet apart. If you happen to know the course of a current
flowing through the pond, or the location of a shoal frequented by
minnows, you will do well to keep near it. Over each hole you set a
small contrivance called a "tilt-up." It consists of two sticks fastened
in the middle, at right angles to each other. The stronger of the two is
laid across the opening in the ice. The other is thus balanced above
the aperture, with a baited hook and line attached to one end, while the
other end is adorned with a little flag. For choice, I would have the
flags red. They look gayer, and I imagine they are more lucky.

When you have thus baited and set your tilt-ups,--twenty or thirty of
them,--you may put on your skates and amuse yourself by gliding to
and fro on the smooth surface of the ice, cutting figures of eight and
grapevines and diamond twists, while you wait for the pickerel to begin
their part of the performance. They will let you know when they are
ready.

A fish, swimming around in the dim depths under the ice, sees one of
your baits, fancies it, and takes it in. The moment he tries to run away
with it he tilts the little red flag into the air and waves it backward
and forward. "Be quick!" he signals all unconsciously; "here I am; come
and pull me up!"

When two or three flags are fluttering at the same moment, far apart on
the pond, you must skate with speed and haul in your lines promptly.

How hard it is, sometimes, to decide which one you will take first! That
flag in the middle of the pond has been waving for at least a min