Jimmy sat by cleaning his
gun, for to his mortification he had that day missed killing a
crow which stole from the ash hopper the egg with which Mary
tested the strength of the lye. In a basket behind the kitchen
stove fifteen newly hatched yellow chickens, with brown stripes
on their backs, were peeping and nestling; and on wing the
killdeers cried half the night. At two o'clock in the morning
came a tap on the Malone's bedroom window.
"Dannie?" questioned Mary, half startled.
"Tell Jimmy!" cried Dannie's breathless voice outside. "Tell him
the Kingfisher has juist struck the river!"
Jimmy sat straight up in bed.
"Then glory be!" he cried. "To-morrow the Black Bass comes home!"
Chapter V
WHEN THE RAINBOW SET ITS ARCH IN THE SKY
"Where did Jimmy go?" asked Mary.
Jimmy had been up in time to feed the chickens and carry in the
milk, but he disappeared shortly after breakfast.
Dannie almost blushed as he answered: "He went to take a peep at
the river. It's going down fast. When it gets into its regular
channel, spawning will be over and the fish will come back to
their old places. We figure that the Black Bass will be home
to-day."
"When you go digging for bait," said Mary, "I wonder if the two
of you could make it convanient to spade an onion bed.
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