canoe holding tightly to her rod.

"Be careful!" exclaimed Alfred. "Sit down. You will have the canoe
upset in a moment. Hold your rod steady and keep the line taut.
That's right. Now lead him round toward me. There," and grasping the
line he lifted a fine rock bass over the side of the canoe.

"Oh! I always get so intensely excited," breathlessly cried Betty.
"I can't help it. Jonathan always declares he will never take me
fishing again. Let me see the fish. It's a goggle-eye. Isn't he
pretty? Look how funny he bats his eyes," and she laughed gleefully
as she gingerly picked up the fish by the tail and dropped him into
the water. "Now, Mr. Goggle-eye, if you are wise, in future you will
beware of tempting looking bugs."

For an hour they had splendid sport. The pool teemed with sunfish.
The bait would scarcely touch the water when the little orange
colored fellows would rush for it. Now and then a black bass darted
wickedly through the school of sunfish and stole the morsel from
them. Or a sharp-nosed fiery-eyed pickerel--vulture of the
water--rising to the surface, and, supreme in his indifference to
man or fish, would swim lazily round until he had discovered the
cause of all this commotion among the smaller fishes, and then,
opening wide his jaws would take the bait with one voracious snap.

Presently something took hold of Betty's line and moved out toward
the middle of the pool. She struck and the next instant her rod was
bent double and the tip under water.

"Pull your rod up!" shouted Alfred. "Here, hand it to me."

But it was too late. A surge right and left, a vicious tug, and
Betty's line floated on the surface of the water.

"Now, isn't that too bad? He has broken my line. Goodness, I never
before felt such a strong fish. What shall I do?"

"You should be thankful you were not pulled in. I have been in a
state of fear ever since we commenced fishing. You move round in
this canoe as though it were a raft. Let me paddle out to that
little ripple and try once there; then we will stop. I know you are
tired."

Near the center of the pool a half submerged rock checked the
current and caused a little ripple of the water. Several times
Alfred had seen the dark shadow of a large fish followed by a swirl
of the water, and the frantic leaping of little bright-sided minnows
in all directions. As his hook, baited with a lively shiner, floated
over the spot, a long, yellow object shot from out that shaded lair.