'It's all right now,' Hal said, leaning back on his elbows.
He shut his eyes and let the sun warm his face.
'Did you see the cloud?' Petey whispered.
'Yes. But I don't see it now . . . do you'?'
They looked at the sky. There were scattered white puffs here and there, but no large dark cloud. It was gone, as he had said.
Hal pulled Petey to his feet. 'There'll be towels up at the house. Come on.' But he paused, looking at his son. 'You were crazy, running out there like that.'
Petey looked at him solemnly. 'You were brave, Daddy.'
'Was I?' The thought of bravery had never crossed his mind. Only his fear. The fear had been too big to see anything else. If anything else had indeed been there. 'Come on, Pete.'
'What are we going to tell Mom?'
Hal smiled. 'I dunno, big guy. We'll think of something.'
He paused a moment longer, looking at the boards floating on the water. The lake was calm again sparkling with small wavelets. Suddenly Hal thought of summer people he didn't even know--a man and his son, perhaps, fishing for the big one.
He shuddered, but those were only things that might be.
'Come on,' he said to Petey again, and they walked up the path through the flaming October woods toward the home place.
By Betsy Moriarty
HUNDREDS of dead fish were found
floating belly-up on Crystal Lake
in the neighboring township of
Casco late last week. The largest
numbers appeared to have died in
the vicinity of Hunter's Point, al-
lthough the lake's currents make
this a bit difficult to determine.
The dead fish included all types
