his expiring rays cast a glare upon the overhanging clouds
in the west, whilst the shades of night gathered thickly over the
eastern horizon. Not a breath of wind disturbed the glassy smoothness
of the water, in which every golden-tinted cloud was mirrored with a
fidelity that rendered it difficult to say which was image and which
reality. The little bark darted through the water with the greatest
ease, and as I passed among the deepening shadows of the lofty pines,
and across the gilded waters of the bay, a wild enthusiasm seized me; I
strained with all my strength upon the paddle, and the sparkling drops
flew in showers behind me as the little canoe flew over the water more
like a phantom than a reality--when suddenly I missed my stroke; my
whole weight was thrown on one side, the water gurgled over the gunwale
of the canoe, and my heart leaped to my mouth, as I looked for an
instant into the dark water. It was only for a moment; in another
instant the canoe righted, and I paddled the remainder of the way in a
much more gentle manner--enthusiasm gone, and a most wholesome degree of
timidity pervading my entire frame. It was dark when I reached the
fort, and upon landing I took the canoe under my arm and carried it up
the bank with nearly as much ease as if it had been a camp-stool.

When the day was warm and the sun bright--when the sky was clear and the
water blue--when the air was motionless, and the noise of arrivals and
departures had ceased--when work was at a stand, and we enjoyed the
felicity of having nothing to do, Mr Russ and I used to saunter down to
the water's edge to have an hour or two's fishing. The fish we fished
for were goldeyes, and the manner of our fishing was this:--

Pausing occasionally as we walked along, one of us might be observed to
bend in a watchful manner over the grass, and, gradually assuming the
position of a quadruped, fall plump upon his hands and knees. Having
achieved this feat, he would rise with a grasshopper between his finger
and thumb; a tin box being then held open by the other, the unlucky
insect was carefully introduced to the interior, and the lid closed
sharply--some such remark attending each capture as that "_That_ one was
safe," or, "There went another;" and the mystery of the whole proceeding
being explained by the fact that these same incarcerated grasshoppers
were intended to form the bait with which we trusted to beguile the
unwary goldeyes to their fate.