en that Jim was unable to get out of the way,
and the fish, which was a three-pound trout, struck him squarely in
the face, bowling him over in the grass, and causing him to drop the
fishing tackle he was holding in his hands, long enough to brush the
water from his eyes.

Now it was the girls' turn to laugh, and they did not neglect the
opportunity.

"Thought I couldn't catch a fish, didn't you, Jim Barlow?" cried
Dorothy. "Well, I trust you now see the error of your judgment. I
caught him, and you caught him, too, only you caught him where I
didn't--across the face."

At this both girls burst out laughing again, and Gerald, no longer
able to restrain himself, convulsed at the sight of Jim as he went
tumbling backward with his eyes and nose full of water, was forced to
join them. They laughed so loudly that Jim first smiled, then burst
into a guffaw himself. He had been inclined to be angry at the
humiliation imposed upon him by the fish, but now the ludicrous side
of the affair appealed to him. He admitted that Dorothy had all the
best of the argument and wound up by declaring that he intended
trying his luck at the fish again.

Dorothy, in the meantime, had walked over and picked up her squirming
catch, which she detached from the hook and dropped in the basket she
had brought with her for that purpose.

"Here goes again!" she cried, and fastening a new fly on her line,
she cast it far out into the stream. "Better hurry, you people, or
I'll have the record for the day."

Gerald and Jim, thus admonished, began undoing their fishing tackle,
and soon the quartet were fishing as if their lives depended on what
they caught that afternoon. And the strangest part about it was that
nobody--not even the girls--said a word! Silence reigned supreme. So,
although Dorothy had triumphed in showing the boys the folly of
keeping absolutely silent, the boys had also won their point in
getting the girls so interested that neither cared to talk.

The fish began to bite with unusual frequency, and soon each member
of the party had a fine string in the basket. Lunch was forgotten, so
eager was each to beat the other's record, and so nearly equal were
the numbers of fish caught by each, they were afraid to stop to count
them for fear they would be losing valuable time.

But finally, when the declining sun told them that the afternoon
would soon be gone, with the pangs of hunger gnawing at their
stomachs, a general agreement cau