ood for you, Jeff!"

"Bull-head! bull-head!"

"Look out for his horns."

"Ain't he a whopper?"

"I say, Jeff, did you ever read about flying-fish?"

"Course I have."

"Well, shouldn't you think their wings'd get wet under water?"

"Charley! mind your cork; it's gone under."

So it had, and in a moment more he could shout, "I'm even with you. Only
mine's a pumpkin-seed."

It looked as if the luck of that morning had settled upon the two boys.
It was hard to say which of them came in for the largest share of it.
Even before they moved their boat the first time they could count three
bull-heads, six perch, twice as many sunfish, or "pumpkin-seed," two
shiners, and a sucker. To be sure, none of them were very large fish,
but they were all big enough to eat, and would count when they came to
compare with the contents of the fat man's basket.

"That was a pretty big fish-basket," said Charley. "Most of 'em are flat
little things."

"It's bigger'n he'll need for all the fish he'll find in that brook.
Hullo, my bait's off again."

"So's mine. Just a nibble."

"Six prime worms gone hand-running. Jeff, I guess we might as well pull
up. The snappin'-turtles have come for us."

"Do they skin a hook that way?"

"That's just what they do. Black Dan says the fish put 'em up to it.
Particularly that there boss pickerel."

Charley had more than one story to tell about Black Dan, but he pulled
up the big stone that was doing duty as an anchor, and off they went to
another "tip-top spot."

It proved so for a while, and there Jeff pulled in his first eel. Then
he had a good time, as Charley said, getting the eel off the hook, and
untwisting him from the snarl he had got himself into with the
fish-line.

"There he goes," said Charley, "all over the bottom of the boat. Black
Dan says an eel just loves to travel round."

"They're mean things to catch."

"I've got one. Now I'll show you."

Charley knew how to take an eel off a hook, but that one bothered him,
and when he finally got him loose, he said,

"I say, Jeff, this won't do. I'd as lief fish for turtles. Let's move."

"Wait a bit. Maybe there's something else."

So there was, but not for any great length of time; and as the boys were
impatient, they made another move.

They would have given one of their eels to know how the fat man from the
city was getting along.

Toward noon their frequent changes brought them away up to the head of
the pond, near t