Read this passage from the "the strangers that came to town": between three and four o'clock we dropped lines in a school of yellow perch and pulled up no fewer than twenty. the bass continued to bite in the deep black holes off the swamp, which bristled with tree trunks. aching, blistered, moving like machines, tom and i geared ourselves for the home stretch. which word best describes the mood this passage creates? peaceful oppressive excited cheerful