. Days in the open. f size at least. When they began feeding upon the tiny formsof life found in the creek, the Bully soon gained areputation for pugnaciousness. He did not hesitateto crowd his best friend away from a larva, and,before he was an inch long, he had bitten the leftpectoral fin from one of his comrades who had ven-tured to resist the Bullys attempt to rob him of aluscious little snail that he had discovered. Oneday when the Bully was yet a fingerling he joinedbattle with a chub twice his size, and, although helost a part of his tail in the fray, and all the specta-tors thought he
. Days in the open. f size at least. When they began feeding upon the tiny formsof life found in the creek, the Bully soon gained areputation for pugnaciousness. He did not hesitateto crowd his best friend away from a larva, and,before he was an inch long, he had bitten the leftpectoral fin from one of his comrades who had ven-tured to resist the Bullys attempt to rob him of aluscious little snail that he had discovered. Oneday when the Bully was yet a fingerling he joinedbattle with a chub twice his size, and, although helost a part of his tail in the fray, and all the specta-tors thought he was whipped before the conflict hadfairly begun, the thought of giving up never oc-curred to him, and he fought until his foe turnedtail and fled into the river, a quarter of a mileaway. He was still living in the brook and had cometo be almost four inches in length when he hadan experience that shook his nerves he was resting beside a sod a little worm, allbent out of shape, but undeniably of the vermes. «o <W THE BULLY OF THE OSWEGATCHIE 241 family, came floating down the stream and hepromptly grabbed it. Then came a sharp prick inhis lip and something was pulling him out fromunder the sod. He braced and twisted and threshedabout, but all in vain. Up he went out of the water,all the time doing fancy somersaults such as hehad never attempted before. A moment later hestruck the water with a splash and was soon safelyhidden under the sod again. From his hiding-place he watched that worm come floating past himagain and yet again, but he had learned that he looked closely, he saw that the wormwas fastened to the end of a string, and a littlelater he discovered that this string was tied to astick which was in the possession of some creaturethat walked along the bank of the stream. Lateron he learned that this strange animal was a smallboy and that all members of this species were hisenemies. Whether or not he ever relized that heowed his life to the fact
Size: 1225px × 2040px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorrh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfishing
