"Just hold the canoe steady and watch me." And Dick, resting his
hands on the gunwales, threw himself overboard.

The splash frightened the turtle, which made off up the creek, but
the boy was on his trail and, after a few futile grabs, had the
reptile in his hand.

"Think that will do for supper, Ned, or shall I pick up a few more?"
said Dick, as he put the turtle in the canoe.

"I'd like to know who taught you that, you rascal, playing roots on
your poor old chum, who never had your chance to see the world."

While they were waiting for Ned's hand to get well, Dick got out the
fly-rod and cast-net that came with his canoe and spent all his
spare time trying to learn to throw the net. Johnny had given him a
few lessons, until he thought he had learned to cast it. It was the
kind of net which is used by the Florida Cracker, to the knowledge
of which he is born, which he can cast when he leaves his cradle.
The net was conical, six feet long with a ten-foot mouth, lined with
leaden sinkers. The top of the net was closed, excepting for a small
hole in which was fitted a small ring, through which puckering
strings led from the mouth of the net to a 25-foot line, which was
to be fastened to the fisherman's wrist.

For casting, about half of the net is thrown over each wrist and one
of the sinkers held between the teeth. The net is then swung behind
the fisherman, thrown forward with a whirling motion, the sinker in
his mouth released at exactly the right instant and the net falls in
an almost perfect circle wherever, within thirty feet, the fisherman
wishes. That is the way the net behaved when Johnny threw it. And
when Johnny arranged the net on Dick's arms, told him just what to
do and watched him, Dick made some respectable throws, and thought
he had learned the game; but now, away from his teacher, when he
tried to cast it, net and leads went out in a solid mass that never
could have caught anything, though it might have killed a fish by
knocking it in the head. Dick, however, was bound to learn, and
practiced by the hour, without seeming to make any progress, when
suddenly the net began to go out in circles and his casts became
creditable. He was so fearful of losing his new-found facility that
he practiced for the rest of that day, and lay down at night with
what he called the toothache in every muscle.

But from that day fish was on the bill of fare of the young
explorers.

When Ned's hand was well enough to