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. If I had it
spaded I could stick the sets mesilf."
"Now, that amna fair, Mary," said Dannie. "We never went fishing
till the garden was made, and the crops at least wouldna suffer.
We'll make the beds, of course, juist as soon as they can be
spaded, and plant the seed, too."
"I want to plant the seeds mesilf," said Mary.
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