stantly enthusiastic, but Mrs. Morton
preferred to stay at home and keep cool.

Marian and Chicken Little left the others to put up the lunch, while
they went out to the stable to hitch up the bays. They were soon on
their way, with a can of bait and a pocket full of fish hooks and stout
cord to rig up impromptu fishing lines, the men having taken all the
poles with them.

The others had gone soon after daybreak. It was nearing ten when Marian
drove up to the Captain's hitching post.

"What if he isn't at home?" said Chicken Little.

"He's got to be," laughed Marian.

Wing Fan came out, grinning. He did not share his master's reputed
dislike for ladies.

He ushered them all into the big library and went off to notify the
Captain, who was down in the meadow superintending the hay cutting.

"I am afraid we are an awful nuisance, but my prophetic soul tells me he
will enjoy the joke and be pleased to have us come to him." Marian was
bolstering up her courage.

"Of course he will. You don't suppose anybody could resist this crowd,
do you?" Alice encouraged.

Captain Clarke was both pleased and amused. They were so excited they
all talked at once, and it took several minutes for him to get command
of the situation.

"They have the advantage in fishing early in the day, but I'll impress
Wing Fan and we'll have more fish, if I have to get out a net and seine
them. We'll go down to the long hole now and see what we can do, and
Wing will come as soon as he gives the men their dinner. If there is a
fish in the creek you can depend on Wing to lure him. He just goes out
and crooks his little finger and they begin to hunt for the hook," he
explained to Gertie.

The Captain proved to be an expert fisherman himself. He showed them all
his little stock of fisherman's tricks and they had a good catch by noon
when Marian and Alice stopped to prepare the lunch. About two o'clock
Wing Fan appeared, his face one broad, yellow smile.

"Big missee and little missee have most," he assured them.

Chicken Little and Katy and Gertie laid off and perched some distance up
the bank behind Wing to watch his methods. He didn't seem to do anything
different, but the fish certainly came to his hook in a most astonishing
manner.

They fished until four, and the catch exceeded their wildest
expectations. They wanted to leave some with the Captain, but he
wouldn't hear of it. "If the men have more than you, you can send me
some of theirs