ut the perch seemed to think it was good, and they
would be sure to eat it if he didn't; and so, although the string was in
plain sight and ought to have been a sufficient warning, he exercised
his royal prerogative, shouldered those yellow-barred plebeians out of
the way, and took the tid-bit for himself. It is too humiliating; let us
draw a veil over that closing scene.

The King of the Trout Stream had gone the way of his fathers, and
another reigned in his stead.

THE STRENUOUS LIFE OF A CANADA LYNX

THE Canada lynx came down the runway that follows the high bank along
the northern shore of the Glimmerglass, his keen, silvery eyes watching
the woods for foe or prey, and his big feet padding softly on the dead
leaves. He was old, was the Canada lynx, and he had grown very tall and
gaunt, but this afternoon his years sat lightly on him. And in a moment
more they had vanished entirely, and he was as young as ever he was in
his life, for, as he stepped cautiously around a little spruce, he came
upon another lynx, nearly as tall as he, and quite as handsome in her
early winter coat. They both stopped short and stared. And no wonder.
Each of them was decidedly worth looking at, especially if the one who
did the looking happened to be another lynx of the opposite sex.

He was some twenty-odd inches in height and about three and a half feet
in length, and had a most villanous cast of countenance, a very
wicked-looking set of teeth, and claws that were two inches long and so
heavy and strong and sharp that you could sometimes hear them crunch
into the bark when he climbed a tree. His long hind legs, heavy
buttocks, thick fore-limbs, and big, clumsy-looking paws told of a
magnificent set of muscles pulling and sliding and hauling under his
cloak. She was nearly as large as he, and very much like him in general
appearance. Both of them wore long, thick fur, of a lustrous steel-gray
color, with paler shades underneath, and darker trimmings along their
back-bones and up and down their legs. Their paws were big and broad and
furry, their tails were stubby and short, and they wore heavy, grizzled
whiskers on the sides of their jaws and mustachios under their noses,
while from the tips of their ears rose tassels of stiff, dark hairs that
had an uncommonly jaunty effect. Altogether they looked very fierce and
imposing and war-like--perhaps rather more so than was justified by
their actual prowess. So it was not surprising