attend to his task
properly, his zeal preventing him for the moment from feeling any
inconvenience from stooping so much.

Nell, who had been debarred from any share in preparing the fish or
looking after its grilling, which, certainly, she would infinitely have
preferred, contented herself with arranging the four small plates which
were all that the cutter's locker contained in the way of crockery-ware,
besides a similar number of cups of various hues and shapes.

All of these articles the young lady set out systematically on a board
which the Captain fixed across the thwarts to serve as a table; while,
as for Mr Strong, all he did in the way of assistance was to set
himself down on the most comfortable seat he could find in the stern-
sheets, where, lighting his pipe, he beguiled the weary moments until
lunch should be ready as best he could, smoking and thinking!

He had not to wait long; for presently, with much dignity the Captain
served up his first instalment of soles, which were declared by the
barrister to be so good that another cooking was necessary; aye, and
another too after that, until there was not a single sole left.

"Poor aunt Polly!" exclaimed Nellie, laughing merrily when they were all
consumed, and the bones of the fish chucked overboard to feed their
brethren below. "All her soles are gone! What shall we tell her?"

"Why, that we ate them," said the Captain, starting the laugh, and all
joining in.

Dick, who was at the moment devouring the last crust of bread left,
after finishing his portion of the fish, nearly choked himself by
bursting into a guffaw while in the act of swallowing; so, this
necessitated the Captain's administering to him a cup of sea-water
wherewith to wash down the morsel sticking in his throat, which did not
taste nice after grilled sole, though the Captain said it was "as good
as grog."

They did not have much sport after luncheon, the next cast of the net
bringing up nothing but boulders and mud, besides an old bottle that
must have been dropped into the sea years before and, mayhap, went down
with Kempenfeldt in the _Royal George_; for it was encrusted with
seaweed and barnacles of almost a century's growth.

After a bit, seeing that nothing further was to be gained by stopping
out at sea, drifting with the tide alternately between the Nab and
Warner light-ships, like Mahomet's coffin between heaven and earth, the
Captain hauled up the trawl and bore away back ho