ok hold of the line and stood on the edge of the dry sand, ready
to pull in the biggest kind of a fish that might come along. I put on my
shoes and stockings, and Rectus his; he'd had enough glory for one day.
Old Menendez wound up his line, too, but that girl saw nothing of all
this. She just kept her eyes and her whole mind centred on her line. At
first, she talked right straight ahead, asking what she should do when
it bit; how big we thought it would be; why we didn't have a cork, and
fifty other things, but all without turning her head to the right or the
left. Then said her father:

"My dear, you mustn't talk; you will frighten the fish. When persons
fish, they always keep perfectly quiet. You never heard me talking while
I was fishing. I fish a good deal when I am at home," said he, turning
to us, "and I always remain perfectly quiet."

Menendez laughed a little at this, and said that he didn't believe the
fish out there in the surf would mind a little quiet chat; but the
gentleman said that he had always found it best to be just as still as
possible. The girl now shut her mouth tight, and held herself more
ready, if possible, than ever, and I believe that if she had got a bite
she would have jerked the fish's head off. We all stood around her, and
her father watched her as earnestly as if she was about to graduate at a
normal school.

We stood and waited and waited, and she didn't move, and neither did the
line. Menendez now said he thought she might as well give it up. The
tide was too low, and it was pretty near dinner-time, and, besides this,
there was a shower coming on.

"Oh, no!" said she; "not just yet. I feel sure I'll get a bite in a
minute or two now. Just wait a little longer."

And so it went on, every few minutes, until we had waited about half an
hour, and then Menendez said he must go, but if the gentleman wanted to
buy the line, and stay there until the tide came in again, he'd sell it
to him. At this, the girl's father told her that she must stop, and so
she very dolefully let Menendez untie the line.

"It's too bad!" she said, almost with tears in her eyes. "If they had
only waited a few minutes longer!" And then she ran up to Rectus and me,
and said:

"When are you coming out here again? Do you think you will come
to-morrow, or next day?"

"I don't know," said I. "We haven't settled our plans for to-morrow."

"Oh, father! father!" she cried, "perhaps they will come out here
to-morro