asshoppers are the thing; and the
field just back of here is full of them. Come, Joe, catch us some
grasshoppers, won't you?"

"How many do you want?" asked Joe. "I don't want to waste good
grasshoppers on fellows who won't use them. Let's see: suppose I get you
ten grasshoppers apiece. Will that do?"

"Are you getting lazy, Joe?" said Tom, "or are you sick? A fellow who
don't want to fish must have something wrong in his insides. Harry,
you'd better give him some medicine."

"Oh, I'm all right," replied Joe. "I'm a little sleepy to-day, but I'll
get your grasshoppers."

Joe took an empty tin can and went in search of grasshoppers, while the
rest were getting their hooks and lines ready. In a short time he
returned, and handed the can to Tom.

"There's just thirty-one grasshoppers in that can," said he. "I threw in
one for good measure. Now go ahead and fish, and I'll have a nap." So
saying, he stretched himself on the ground, and the other boys began to
fish.

[Illustration: AN UNEXPECTED CATCH.--DRAWN BY A. B. FROST.]

There were quantities of perch near the old canal-boat, and they bit
ravenously at the grasshoppers. It took only about a quarter of an hour
to catch nearly three dozen fish. These were more than the boys could
possibly eat; and Tom was just going to remark that they had better stop
fishing, when they were startled by a loud cry from Joe. Harry, in
swinging his line over his head so as to cast out a long way into the
river, had succeeded in hooking Joe in the right ear.

Of course Harry was extremely sorry, and he said so several times; but,
as Joe pointed out, "talk won't pull a hook out of a fellow's ear." The
barb made it impracticable to draw the hook out, and it was quite
impossible that Joe should enjoy the cruise with a fish-hook in his ear.
Jim said that the hook must be cut out; but Joe objected to having his
ear cut to pieces with a dull jack-knife.

In this emergency, Tom proposed to break off the shank of the hook, and
then to push the remainder of it through the ear. It was no easy matter,
however, to break the steel. Every time the hook was touched Joe winced
with pain; but finally Tom managed to break the shank with the aid of
the pair of pliers that formed part of the stores. The hook was then
gently and firmly pressed through the ear, and carefully drawn out.

"I knew," said Tom, "that something must be wrong when Joe said he
didn't want to fish. This ought to be a warning t