ng like sport, and we all felt encouraged, and went
to work again with a will, only Menendez untied the line from Rectus's
waist and fastened it to his button-hole.

"It may pull out," he said; "but, on the whole, it's better to lose a
fishin'-line than a boy."

We fished quietly and steadily for some time, but got no more bites,
when suddenly I heard some one say, behind me:

"They don't ever pull in!"

I turned around, and it was a girl. She was standing there with a
gentleman,--her father, I soon found out,--and I don't know how long
they had been watching us. She was about thirteen years old, and came
over with her father in a sail-boat. I remembered seeing them cruising
around as we were sailing over.

"They haven't got bites," said her father; "that's the reason they don't
pull in."

It was very disagreeable to me, and I know it was even more so to
Rectus, to stand here and have those strangers watch us fishing. If we
had not been barefooted and bare-legged, we should not have minded it so
much. As for the old Minorcan, I don't suppose he cared at all. I began
to think it was time to stop.

"As the tide's getting lower and lower," I said to Menendez, "I suppose
our chances are getting less and less."

"Yes," said he; "I reckon we'd better shut up shop before long."

"Oh!" cried out the girl, "just look at that fish! Father! Father! Just
look at it. Did any of you catch it? I didn't see it till this minute. I
thought you hadn't caught any. If I only had a fishing-line now, I would
like to catch just one fish. Oh, father! why didn't you bring a
fishing-line?"

"I didn't think of it, my dear," said he. "Indeed, I didn't know there
were any fish here."

Old Menendez turned around and grinned at this, and I thought there was
a good chance to stop fishing; so I offered to let the girl try my line
for a while, if she wanted to.

It was certain enough that she wanted to, for she was going to run right
into the water to get it. But I came out, and as her father said she
might fish if she didn't have to walk into the water, old Menendez took
a spare piece of line from his pocket and tied it on to the end of mine,
and he put on some fresh bait and gave it a tremendous send out into the
surf. Then he put the other end around the girl and tied it. I suppose
he thought that it didn't matter if a girl should be lost, but he may
have considered that her father was there to seize her if she got jerked
in.

She to