Now, here it was, the last Saturday in March, and Eddie settled down with his rod.
He'd left in the dark, and it was hardly daybreak when he began to fish.
On both sides of was struck with a hazy pink glow.
He'd brought along night crawlers and crusts of bread in an old tin pail.
Eddie avoided —it was overcrowded and overfished, even more so than , littered with oystering boats.
Several had recently been built across , disturbing the marsh birds.
He knew it wouldn't be long before disappeared, as it had in , where there was .

Through the new leaves of , Eddie spied Beck fishing farther down along .
An encounter with the old man appeared unavoidable, for the hermit gazed over and nodded.
Eddie returned the greeting, considering how to best keep his distance.
Beck was known to chase off intruders with a rifle, and there were those who said he vowed to kill any man who hunted the wildlife that was rapidly becoming rare, coyotes and fox and the huge, cantankerous wild turkeys.
Past was , the highest altitude in , at
There was , and although ran this far, this section of was still dotted with , including once owned by the Audubon family.
Eddie joined the hermit in his agitation over the constant building in .
were rising everywhere.


Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, 2014