Part 7 (1/2)
Evidently ”muckle” could not be the dinner-horn, so Harvey passed over the maul, and Dan scientifically stunned the fish before he pulled it inboard, and wrenched out the hook with the short wooden stick he called a ”gob-stick” Then Harvey felt a tug, and pulled up zealously
”Why, these are strawberries!” he shouted ”Look!”
The hook had fouled a a bunch of strawberries, red on one side and white on the other--perfect reproductions of the land fruit, except that there were no leaves, and the stem was all pipy and slimy
”Don't tech 'e came too late Harvey had picked the theh he had grasped many nettles
”Naow ye knohat strawberry-bottom ers, dad says Slat 'eunnel, an' bait up, Harve Lookin' won't help any It's all in the wages”
Harvey sht of his ten and a half dollars a month, and wondered what his e of a fishi+ng-dory in onies whenever he went out on Saranac Lake; and, by the way, Harvey reh at her anxieties Suddenly the line flashed through his hand, stinging even through the ”flippers,” the woolen circlets supposed to protect it
”He's a logy Give hith,” cried Dan
”I'll help ye”
”No, you won't,” Harvey snapped, as he hung on to the line ”It's my first fish Is--is it a whale?”
”Halibut, side, and flourished the big ” white and oval flickered and fluttered through the green ”I'll lay e an'
share he's over a hundred Are you so everlastin' anxious to land hi where they had been banged against the gunwale; his face was purple-blue between excitement and exertion; he dripped with sweat, and was half blinded fro sunlit ripples about the swiftlyere the halibut, who took charge of the flat fish was gaffed and hauled in at last
”Beginner's luck,” said Dan, wiping his forehead ”He's all of a hundred”
Harvey looked at the huge grey-and-mottled creature with unspeakable pride He had seen halibut many times on marble slabs ashore, but it had never occurred to him to ask how they came inland Now he knew; and every inch of his body ached with fatigue
”Ef dad was along,” said Dan, hauling up, ”he'd read the signs plain's print The fish arc runnin' sy a halibut's we're apt to find this trip Yesterday's catch--did ye notice it?--was all big fish an' no halibut Dad he'd read thens, an' can be read wrong er right Dad's deeper'n the Whale-hole”
Even as he spoke some one fired a pistol on the ”We're Here”, and a potato-basket was run up in the fore-rigging
”What did I say, naow? That's the call fer the whole crowd Dad's onter so, er he'd never break fishi+n' this time o' day Reel up, Harve, an' we'll pull back”
They were to ard of the schooner, just ready to flirt the dory over the still sea, when sounds of woe half aaround a fixed point, for all the world like a gigantic water-bug The little y, but at the end of eachround and snubbed herself on her rope
”We'll hey to help him, else he'll root an' seed here,” said Dan
”What's the matter?” said Harvey This was a neorld, where he could not lay down the law to his elders, but had to ask questions hu and unexcited
”Anchor's fouled Penn's always losing 'em Lost two this trip a'ready,--on sandy bottom, too,--an' dad says next one he loses, sure's fish-in', he'll give hi That 'u'd break Penn's heart”
”What's a 'kelleg'?” said Harvey, who had a vague idea itin the story-books
”Big stone instid of an anchor You kin see a kelleg ridin' in the bows fur's you can see a dory, an' all the fleet knohat it uy hi with a dipper to his tail He's so everlastin' sensitive hello, Penn! Stuck again? Don't try any more o' your patents Coht up an' down”