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‘ ^H thc same fresh-water lcavings and debris— the dcad helgramite,^:,K* the wisps of moss, thc rusty discardcd fishhook, thc dried blood from yestcrday’s catch. We stared silcntly at thc tips of our rods, at thc dragonflics that camc and went. I Iowcrcd the tip of minę ; into the water, tcntativciy, pcnsively dislodging thc fly, which darted two fect away, poiscd, darted two fcet back, and camc to rest again a littlc farther up thc rod. Therc had bccn no ycars bctwcen thc ducking of this dragonfly and thc other one—the

, one that was part of memory. I looked at thc boy, who was silcntly watching his fly, and it was my hands that hcld his rod, my cycs watching. I fclt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I was at thc end of.

6    We caught two bass, hauling them in briskiy as though they

were mackercl, pulling them ovcr thc sidc of thc boat in a busi-ncsslikc manner without any landing net, and stunning them with a blow on thc back of thc hcad. When we got back for a swim bcforc lunch, thc lakę was cxactiy whcrc we had Icft it, thc same number of inchcs from thc dock, and therc was only thc merest

suggestion of a breezc. This seemed an uttcrly enchantcd sea, thjs lakę you could leavc to its own devices for a fcw hours and comc back to, and find that it had not stirred, this constant and trust-worthy body of water. In the shallows, the dark, water-soakcd sticks and twigs, smooth and old, were undulating in clusters on the bottom against thc clean ribbcd sand, and thc track of thc musscl was plain. A school of minnows swam by, each minnow with its smali individual shadow, doubling thc attendance, so elear and sharp in thc sunlight. Somc of the other campcrs were in swimming, along the shorc, one of them with a cake ofsoap, and thc water fclt thin and elear and unsubstantial. Ovcr thc ycars therc had been this person with thc cake of soap, this cultist, and herc hc was. Therc had bccn no ycars.

y    Up to thc farmhousc to dinner through thc teeming, dusty

field, the road under our sneakers was only a two-track road. The middlc track was missing, thc one with thc marks of thc hoovcs and the splotchcs of dried, flaky manure. Therc had always bccn thrcc tracks to choosc from in choosing which track to walk in; now thc choicc was narrowed down to two. For a moment l missed tcrribly thc middlc altcrnativc. But thc way led past thc tennis court, and something about thc way it lay therc in thc sun reassured mc; thc tapc had loosćncd along thc backlinc, the allcys were green with plantains and other wccds, and thc net (installcd in June and rcmovcd in September) sagged in thc dry noon, and thc wholc place steamed with midday hcat and hunger and emp-tiness. Therc was a choicc of pie for dessert, and one was bluc-berry and one was applc, and thc waitresses were thc same coun-

riry gtFIiTthcrc having bccn no passagc of timc, only the illusion of it as in a droppcd curtain — thc waitresscs wcrc still fiftcen; thcir i hair had bccn washcd, that was thc only diflcrencc—thcy had bccn to thc movies and scen thc pretty girls with thc clcan hair.

KWT

Summertime, oh, summertime, pattern of lifc indcliblc, thc 8 fadc-proof lakc, thc woods unshatterable, thc pasturc with thc sweetfern and thc juniper forcver and cvcr, summer without end; this was thc background, and thc lifc along thc shorc was thc dcsigfi, thc cottagcrs with thcir innoccnt and tranquil design, thcir tiny docks with thc flagpole and thc American flag floating j against thc white clouds in thc blue sky, thc littlc paths ovcr thc J roots of thc trees leading from camp to camp and thc paths Icading back to thc outhouses and thc can oflimc for sprinkling,

and at the souvenir countcrs at thc storc thc miniaturę birch-bark canocs and thc posteards that śhowed things looking a littlc better than they lookcd. This was thc American family at play, escaping thc city hcat, wondering whether thc ncwcomers in thc camp at thc head of thc cove were “common” or “nicc,” wondering whether it was truć that thc pcoplc who drove up for Sunday dinner at thc farmhouse wcrc turncd away bccausc therc wasn’t cnough chickcn.

It scemed to mc, as I kept remembering all this, that those 9 times and those summers had bccn infinitcly prccious and worth saving. Therc had bccn jollity and pcacc and goodness. The arriv-ing (at thc beginning of August) had bccn so big a business in I itsclf, at thc railway station thc farm wagon drawn up, thc first 1 smcll of thc pinc-ladcn air, thc first giimpsc of thc smiling farmer, and thc great importance of thc trunks and your fathcr’s cnor-mous authority in such matters, and thc fccl of thc wagon under you for thc long ecn-milc haul, and at thc top of thc lasr long hill catching thc first vicw of thc lakc after clcvcn months of not sccing this chcrishcd body of water. The shouts and crics of thc other campcrs when thcy saw you, and thc trunks to be unpackcd, to givc up thcir rich burden. (Arriving was less cxciting nowadays, when you sneaked up in your car and parked it under a trcc ncar thc camp and took out thc bags and in fivc minutes it was all ovcr, no fuss, no loud wondcrful fuss about trunks.)

Pcacc and goodness and jollity. The only thing that was 10 wrong now, rcaliy, was thc sound of thc place, an unfamiliar nersous sound of thc outboard motors. This was thc notc that jarred, thc one thing that would sometimes break thc illusion and ser thc ycars moving. In those other summertimes all motors wcrc inboard; and when thcy wcrc at a littlc distancc, thc noisc thcy . madc was a sedative, an ingredient of summer slcep. Thcy wcrc onc-cylindcr and two-cylindcr engines, and somc wcrc makc-and-