Part 16 (1/2)

Maybe.

Well, of course, its always maybe, with ba.s.s. WellIm doneand its quarter to tenlate! Oh! Excuse me! Maybe youd rather I hadnt told you.

By the way, do I wind my watch to-night or not?

Not.

Not it is, then. Sure you wouldnt rather have it wound, though? We can leave it hanging in the tent. It wont break loose and bite you.

Yes, it would. There would be a somethinga taint

Oh, _all_ right!

We slept with the murmur of the river running through our dreams,a murmur of many voices: deep voices, high voices, grumbling voices as the stones go grinding and rolling along the ever-changing bottom,and only half roused when the dawn chorus of the birds filled the air. That dawn chorus was something we should have been loath to miss. Through the first gray of the morning there comes a stir in the woods, an expectant tremor; a bird peeps softly and is still; then another, and another, softly conferring together. As the light grows warmer, comes a clearer note from some leader, then a full, complete song; another, and the woods are awake, flinging out their wonderful song-greeting to the morning. There is in it a prodigality of swift-changing beauty like ocean surf: a continuous and intricate interweaving of rhythms, pulses and ebbings of clear tone, beautiful phrases rising antiphonal, showerings of bright notes, moments of subsidence, almost of pause. As the light grows and sharpens, the music reaches a crescendo of exuberance, and at last dies down as real day comes, bringing with it the days work. On our island the leader of the chorus was almost always a song sparrow, though once or twice a wood thrush came over from the sh.o.r.e woods and filled the hemlock shadows with the limpid splendors of his song.

Hearing the chorus through our dreams, we slept again, and when I really waked the sun was high, flecking the eastern V of our tent with dazzling patches. I heard Jonathan moving about outside, and the crackling of a new-made fire. I went to the front of the tent and looked out. Yes, there they were, the fire and Jonathan, in a quiet s.p.a.ce of shade where the early coolness still hung. Beyond them, half shut out from view by the low-spreading hemlock boughs, was the open riversuch 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 ba.s.s?

Dont! I called. I knew that if he once got out after ba.s.s 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 Jonathans 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 didnt 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 4:38A.M.

or P.M., according to taste. Come along. The bacons done, and Im blest if I want to drop in the eggs.

Dropping an egg will never, I fear, be one of Jonathans 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 theyre 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 sh.o.r.e 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 fis.h.i.+ng?

Welllets fis.h.!.+

One up stream and one down, or keep together?

Together, I decided. If we go two ways theres no telling when Ill ever see you again.

Yes, there is: when Im hungry.

No; some time after youve noticed youre hungry.