shing for good fish
and I got a bite and pulled _that_ up!" and he pointed to the ugly
brown fish that lay gasping on the boards.

"Is it a Sallie Growler?" asked Russ.

"It is," said the new boy. "And they can bite like anything. Look how
that one held on to my dog's nose."

"I hope he isn't hurt much," put in Laddie. "I didn't mean to do it."

"No, I guess you didn't," said the other boy. "Nobody ever tries to
catch a Sallie Growler. They're too nasty and hard to get off the hook.
'Most always they swallow it, but this one didn't. He dropped off just
as you landed him and then my dog came along and smelled him--Teddy's
always smelling something--and the fish bit him."

"Do you live around here?" asked Russ.

"Yes, we're here for the summer. I guess I saw you down on the beach
last night roasting marshmallows, didn't I?"

"Yes, and we gave your dog some," returned Laddie. "What's your name?"

"George Carr. What's yours?"

"Laddie Bunker."

"Mine's Russ," said Laddie's brother. "Oh, look! I guess I've got a
crab!"

He ran to where he had tied the end of his string to a post of the pier,
and began to pull in. Surely enough, on the end was a big blue-clawed
crab, and, with the help of Laddie, who used the net, the creature was
soon landed on the pier.

"Here! You keep away from that crab!" called George Carr to his dog
Teddy. "Do you want your nose bit again?"

And from the way the crab raised its claws in the air, snapping them
shut, it would seem that the shellfish would have been very glad indeed
to pinch the dog's nose. But Teddy had learned a lesson. He kept well
away from the gasping Sallie Growler, too.

"What makes 'em be called Sallie Growler?" asked Laddie, as he and Russ
looked at the fish. It was very ugly, with a head shaped like a toad,
and a very big mouth.

"I don't know why they call 'em Sallie," said George; "but they call 'em
Growler 'cause they do growl. Sometimes you can hear 'em grunting under
the water. There goes this one now!"

Just as he spoke the fish did give a sort of groan or growl. It opened
its mouth, gasping for breath.

"They're no good--worse than a toad fish!" exclaimed George, as he
kicked the one Laddie had caught into the water.

"Are there many around here?" asked Russ.

"Yes, quite a lot in the inlet," answered George. "They don't bite on
crab-meat bait, but if you're fishing for fish they often swallow your
hook, bait and all. I don't like 'em, and I guess