the
early coolness still hung. Beyond them, half shut out from view by the
low-spreading hemlock boughs, was the open river--such gayety of swift
water! Such dazzle of midsummer morning! I drew back, eager to be out in
it.

"Bacon and eggs, is it?" called Jonathan, "or shall I run down and try for
a bass?"

"Don't!" I called. I knew that if he once got out after bass he was lost
to me for the day. And now we had cut loose from even the mild tyranny of
his watch. As I thought of this I went over to the many-forked tree, whose
close-trimmed branches served our tent as hat-rack, clothes-rack,
everything-that-can-hang-or-perch-rack, and opened Jonathan's watch.

"Well, what time is it?" Jonathan was peering in between the tent-flaps.

"Twenty-two minutes before five."

"A.M., I judge. Sorry you didn't let me wind it?"

"Not a bit. I was just curious to see when it stopped, that was all."

"Well, now you know. Hereafter the official time for the camp is 4:38--A.M.
or P.M., according to taste. Come along. The bacon's done, and I'm blest
if I want to drop in the eggs."

Dropping an egg will never, I fear, be one of Jonathan's most finished
performances. He watched me do it with generous admiration. "If you could
just get over being scared of them," I suggested, as the last one plumped
into the pan and set up its gentle sizzle.

"No use. I _am_ scared of the things. I tap and tap, and nothing happens,
and then I get mad and tap hard, and they're all over the place."

By the time breakfast was over, even the coolness under the hemlocks was
beginning to grow warm and aromatic. The birds in the shore woods were
quieter, though out at the sunny end of our island, where the hemlocks
gave place to low scrub growth, the song sparrow sang gayly now and then.

"Now," said Jonathan, "what about fishing?"

"Well--let's fish!"

"One up stream and one down, or keep together?"

"Together," I decided. "If we go two ways there's no telling when I'll
ever see you again."

"Yes, there is: when I'm hungry."

"No; some time after you've noticed you're hungry."

"Now, if we had watches it would be so much simpler: we could meet here
at, say, one o'clock."

"Simple, indeed! When did you ever look at a watch when you were fishing,
unless I made you? No, my way is simple, but we stay together."

Of course, in river fishing, "together" means simply not absolutely out of
sight of each other. Jonathan may be up to his arm-pits in m