Part 15 (1/2)

”Jack doesn't have to be at the light till dark. The old lady gets along all right alone,” explained Phineas. ”And it ain't many of these longsh.o.r.emen who know how to handle a motor. Jack's used to machinery.”

He seemed to feel that it was necessary to excuse himself for hiring the hairy man. But Heavy only said:

”Well, as long as he behaves himself I don't care. But I didn't suppose you liked the fellow, Phin.”

”I don't. It was Hobson's choice, Miss,” returned the sailor.

Phineas, the girls found, was a very pleasant and entertaining man.

And he knew all about fis.h.i.+ng. He had supplied the bait for tautog, and the girls and boys of the party, all having lived inland, learned many things that they hadn't known before.

”Look at this!” cried Madge Steele, the first to discover a miracle.

”He says this bait for tautog is scallops! Now, that quivering, jelly-like body is never a scallop. Why, a scallop is a firm, white lump----”

”It's a mussel,” said Heavy, laughing.

”It's only the 'eye' of the scallop you eat, Miss,” explained Phineas.

”Now I know just as much as I did before,” declared Madge. ”So I eat a scallop's _eye_, do I? We had them for breakfast this very morning--with bacon.”

”So you did, Miss. I raked 'em up myself yesterday afternoon,”

explained Phineas. ”You eat the 'eye,' but these are the bodies, and they are the reg'lar natural food of the tautog, or blackfish.”

”The edible part of the scallop is that muscle which adheres to the sh.e.l.l--just like the muscle that holds the clam to its sh.e.l.l,” said Heavy, who, having spent several summers at the sh.o.r.e, was better informed than her friends.

Phineas showed the girls how to bait their hooks with the soft bodies of the scallop, warning them to cover the point of the hooks well, and to pull quickly if they felt the least nibble.

”The tautog is a small-mouthed fish--smaller, even, than the ba.s.s the boys are going to cast for. So, when he touches the hook at all, you want to grab him.”

”Does it _hurt_ the fish to be caught?” asked Helen, curiously.

Phineas grinned. ”I never axed 'em, ma'am,” he said.

The _Miraflame_ carried them swiftly down the cove, or harbor, of Sokennet and out past the light. The sea was comparatively calm, but the surf roared against the rocks which hedged in the sand dunes north of the harbor's mouth. It was in this direction that Phineas steered the launch, and for ten miles the craft spun along at a pace that delighted the whole party.

”We're just skimming the water!” cried Tom Cameron. ”Oh, Nell! I'm going to coax father till he buys one for us to use on the Lumano.”

”I'll help tease,” agreed his twin, her eyes sparkling.

Nita, the runaway, looked from brother to sister with sudden interest.

”Does your father give you everything you ask him for?” she demanded.

”Not much!” cried Tom. ”But dear old dad is pretty easy with us and--Mrs. Murchiston says--gives in to us too much.”

”But, does he buy you such things as boats--right out--for you just to play with?”

”Why, of course!” cried Tom.

”And I couldn't even have a piano,” muttered Nita, turning away with a shrug. ”I told him he was a mean old hunks!”