y?" said Tom grinning.

"Well, I shall," I replied, and the sailor went on.

"When the water began to get low in that pool we used to see that there
were fish in it, and at last there was a regular set out catching of
them in the bits of holes where the water had left them."

"Oh, I say, Mas'r Harry, don't I wish we had been there!" cried Tom.

"Ay, it was fun, my lad, for we got scores of tench, some of 'em three
and four pound weight, and there was six or seven carp ever so much
bigger. One of 'em weighed nine pounds."

"That was a fine un," said Tom.

"But the biggest fish we got was a pike, and he was the only one there.
That chap must have eat up all that had been before him, and he weighed
three-and-thirty pound. He was close upon four foot long, and a
gentleman there said if he had been in good condition he would have
weighed five-and-forty, for he was as thin as a lath."

"I should have liked to see that fish," said Tom.

"Ay, it was a fine one. We boys daren't tackle him, he was so big,"
continued the sailor; "and then out of the mud they got bushels of great
eels, some of the biggest I ever saw."

"Did you though?" said Tom.

"Ay, we did. When the water had got right down low, you could see 'em
squirming about like snakes, and when they'd got all we could see they
laid down boards over the mud, and punched about in the soft places when
great fellows kept coming up to the top, and they got no end more. They
were the biggest eels ever I see, and as fat as butter."

"Were they though?" said Tom.

"Ay, they were, my lads; and what I wanted to say was this--If so be as
those fish could live in that bit of a three-acre pool without people
knowing of their being there, don't you think there can be no end of big
fishes and things in the great waters, thousands of miles from shore,
such as menfolks has never seen?"

"Well, it do seem likely," said Tom; "but I never could swallow the
sea-serpent."

"No, my lad, more likely to swallow you," said the sailor drily.

"But come now," said Tom drily. "Did you ever come across the great
sea-serpent?"

"A mate o' mine," said the sailor, "told me he once saw out Newfoundland
way part of a great cuttle-fish that had been washed ashore after a
storm. It was a great jellyfish sort of thing, and it was thirty foot
long; and he said he was sure it couldn't have been more than half of
it, and the next day he saw one of its arms all full of suckers, and it
wa