ver into the water.
"That don't look like anything that lives in the water, does it?"

"I d'know," said Dick, who was disappointed.

"I do!" growled Josh to himself.

"Look here, sir," said Will, tearing the hook out of the piece of squid
and throwing it away before picking a similar piece about five inches
long from his basket. "I shall just hook it through like that on the
end. Now, look here! watch it as we go through the water."

He threw a yard or two of line in the water, the bait going in with a
little splash; and as it was drawn along close to the surface by the
progress of the boat it had a curious wavy motion, while, when Will
snatched the line a little now and then, the bait seemed to be making
darts.

"Why, it looks like a little eel!" cried Dick.

"Yes, like a sand-eel! See that!"

"Oh!" said Dick excitedly, as there was a splash astern, and something
flashed like silver through the water.

"Little tiny mackerel," said Will calmly. "There you are. Let it go;
pitch the lead over, and that will keep the bait down, and you can let
out twenty or thirty yards of line, and then hold on."

"But won't that lead sink it to the bottom?" said Dick, as he obeyed his
companion.

"It would if we kept still; but rowing like this, it will only keep it
down a few feet. If you had no weight, you'd only have the long noses
after it, for the bait would be skipping along the top of the water."

"Long noses!" cried Dick eagerly; "what are they?"

"A-mussy me!" sighed Josh to himself, as he looked pityingly at the
young visitor.

"We call the gar-fish long noses," said Will. "They are long silvery
fish with bodies like eels."

"I've seen them at the fishmongers'," cried Dick. "They've regular
beaks something like a bird's."

"But full of sharp teeth," said Will. "Those are the fellows, and
they're very hard to catch."

"Why?"

"Because there is so little for the hook to hold on by."

"Oh! I say! look here!"

During the above conversation the line had been allowed to run out forty
or fifty yards, the lad holding it in his left hand, with his arm
hanging over the stern. Then all at once there was a sharp snatch, and
Dick turned over on to his knees, holding the line with both hands.

"I've got him!" he cried. "Such a big one! Oh, don't he pull!"

"Well, why don't you pull?" cried Will laughing at his new friend's
excitement.

"I'm going to play him first."

"Pull him in sharp, hand over h