The Jonathan Papers

cid R

s to turn a deaf ear to duty and a blind eye to all other pleasures, and-find a trout brook. We are, indeed, able to understand that duty may be too much for him-may be quite indifferent to his deaf ear and shout in the other, or may even seize him by the shoulders and hold him firmly in his place. He

e a lion-for in some parts of New England a jocose legislature has arranged that the trout season

our coffee, "have you no

murmured abstractedly fr

unshine? Have you smelt the sp

up over his paper. "Do!

, let's r

re's a man

ng. Tell him to come to-morrow. Te

too-book clubs and Japanese clubs a

n too. I am called-we're both called,

ar, you know I

able and see which is the first train t

I let him protest. A man

e knew. When the conductor came to us, Jonathan showed him our mileage book. "Where to?" he asked mechanical

I said; "let's see t

tions, and if we don't get off then, you'll find us here

evidently not a bridal couple, and we did

ing spots I have passed on the road and could never stop to explore. This time we really did it. We left the little railway station, sitting plain and useful beside the track, went up the road past a few farmhouses, ov

ay? We sat and looked at the world for a little, and let the wind, with just the faint chill of the vanishing snows still in it, blow over us, and the sun, that was making anemones and arbu

d there where a deep pool looked suggestive. Trout? Yes, we caught some. Jonathan pulled in a good many; I got enough to seem industrious. I seldom catch as many as Jonathan, though he tries to give me all the best holes; because really there are so many other things to attend to. Men seem to go fishing chiefly to

neatly extracted my hat-pins and dropped them in the tangle about my feet; they pulled off my hat, but I pushed painfully forward. They tore at my hair; they caught an end of my tie and drew out the bow. Finally they made a simultaneous and well-planned assault upon my hair, my neck, my left arm, raised to push them back, and my right, extended to hold and guide that quive

ns "Come," and Jonathan came threshing

" he called; "I

y recognizable form. Help me out!" The thrush sang again, one tree farther away. "No! First kill

as he caught sight of me, "Well! You a

their hold. Meanwhile Jonathan made placid remarks about the proper way to go through brush. "You go too fast, you know

are as tactless

cut this last fellow. There! Now you'r

method compatible with sanity, I am ready to do it, but as for allowing myself to be drawn into a situation w

ck-ya, whick-ya, whick-ya" of the courting yellowhammers, in the meadows bluebirds with their shy, vanishing call that is over almost before you can

who has not broiled fresh-caught trout outdoors on birch forks-or spice bush will do almost as well-has yet to learn what life holds for him. Chops are good, too, done in that way. We usually carry them along when there is no prospect of fish, or, when we are sure of our country, we take a tin cup and buy eggs at a farmhouse to boil. But the balancing of the can requ

were arrested by the sharp fragrance of the spice bush, whose little yellow blossoms had escaped our notice. In the damp hollows the ground was carpeted with the rich, mottled green leaves and tawny yellow bells of the adder's-tongue, and the wet mud was swe

eps of the little back porch where we could hear the insistent note of the little ph?be that was building under the eaves of the woodshed. Our hostess stood in the doorway, watching in amused tolerance as we filled and refilled our goblets. They were wonderful goblets, be it said-the best the house afford

he morning. As he folded back the green cover of our mileage book he coul

d tea before our home fireplace that evening,