The morning sky was bluer as the Woolly wandered pondward.
Cattails gently scraping, faintly warning as he passed.
But Dusty didn't hear them, thinking only of his mission,
So he didn't see the pond ahead,
The lilypads...
OR bass.

"I couldn't help but notice...",
Said a voice from in the water,
"...that you're headed south to Currituck...
Just across the Sound.
Would you rather ride over on my back?
It's SO much shorter
Than crawling so far southward,
And the whole way, on the ground."

Dusty looked up! He was FROZEN in his tracks!
A great, big fish with a great big grin
Peeked through the cattail cracks!
"Too warm a day! Too long a way!",
That Bigmouth Bass spoke well.
"How nice for you that I passed through!
You need me, I can tell."

Well, now...
Our Dusty saw the fish's glowing silver eye.
He saw that tall, pointy dorsal fin...
He saw those shiny scales gleaming wetly in the sunshine...
But all he REALLY saw

...was that grin!

He stammered, "M--M--M--Mr. Shad,
(Oh, he couldn't help but shiver!)
"It's kind of you to offer your assistance...
But I've all day to walk with my friends,
And to talk,
And we're...kind of...looking forward...to the distance?"

Dusty clutched his cap up close to his neck,
And stared up at that huge, darkening eye.
Fourteen little bootsoles clattered
Helplessly together,
Remembering all his Mama'd said, and why!

"BASS! BASS!
I'm not a SHAD!
That fishy thing upbraided.
"If I'm to be insulted,
Then my hunger should be SATED!"
He HURLED himself onto the bank,
Just like a leaping otter!
BUT...
...not close enough to Dusty,
AND...
...too far to reach the water!

WELL, my dear...
At first that fish
Put up a SCARY fight,
All lurchy and floppy in the mud and slippy slime!
Dusty 'bear just shook and stared, in horror and in fear!
Just SURE that fish would get him if he tried to turn and climb!

Just then, there came the faint but mighty WHOOSH! of giant wings!
A sound to change the MIGHTIEST fish
To a scared and minnow-ey thing!
Dusty started scrambling back,
But Mr. Shad said, "WAIT!
Don't leave me! PLEASE don't leave me!
Push me back into the lake!

'Cause I'm sorry now,
SO sorry that I ever tried to eat you!
I'd never do it again", he begged,
If ever again I meet you!
If only you'll come close to me,
And push against my nose,
I'll slip back into the water,
Far away from cats and crows!"

The WHOOSHING! sound was louder now,
The source was closing in...
The Bass became SO scared,

SUPRISE!!

...the specs fell from his fin!
And, all at once, Dusty saw just what that fish had planned,

AND...

He saw the great blue heron come
A-swooping up to land!

"Forgive me, please", Dusty choked
As he slowly backed away.
"I really am so terribly, awfully sorry,
But I'd get an wicked scolding from my Auntie if I did,
And besides...

It looks like now,
YOU are the quarry!"