"Oh, I had luck," Norah said. "He really is a beauty, isn't he? I think
he must be the grandfather of all the perches."

"If that's so," said Jim, beginning to pull in, with an expression of
"do or die" earnestness, "I reckon I've got the grandmother on now!"

A storm of advice hurtled about Jim as he tugged at his line.

"Hurry up, Jim!"

"Go slow!"

"There--he's getting off again!"

"So are you!" said the ungrateful recipient of the counsel, puffing
hard.

"Only a boot, Jim--don't worry!"

"Gammon!--it's a shark!--look at his worried expression!"

"I'll 'shark' you, young Harry!" grunted Jim. "Mind your eye--there he
comes!" And expressions of admiration broke from the scoffers as a
second splendid perch dangled in the air and was landed high and dry--or
comparatively so--in the branches of the wattle tree.

"Is he as big as yours, Norah?" queried Jim a minute later, tossing his
fish down on the grass close to his sister and the Hermit.

Norah laid the two fishes alongside.

"Not quite," she announced; "mine's about an inch longer, and a bit
fatter."

"Well, that's all right," Jim said. "I said it was the grandmother I
had--yours is certainly the grandfather! I'm glad you got the biggest,
old girl." They exchanged a friendly smile.

A yell from Wally intimated that he had something on his hook, and with
immense pride he flourished in the air a diminutive blackfish--so small
that the Hermit proposed to use it for bait, a suggestion promptly
declined by the captor, who hid his catch securely in the fork of two
branches, before re-baiting his hook. Then Harry pulled out a fine
perch, and immediately afterwards Norah caught a blackfish; and after
that the fun waxed fast and furious, the fish biting splendidly, and all
hands being kept busy. An hour later Harry shook the last worm out of
the bait tin and dropped it into the water on his hook, where it
immediately was seized by a perch of very tender years.

"Get back and grow till next year," advised Harry, detaching the little
prisoner carefully, the hook having caught lightly in the side of its
mouth. "I'll come for you next holidays!" and he tossed the tiny fellow
back into the water. "That's our last scrap of bait, you chaps," he
said, beginning to wind up his line.

"I've been fishing with an empty hook for I don't know how long," said
Jim, hauling up also. "These beggars have nibbled my bait off and
carefully dodged the hook."

"Well, we've ple