ould she have Blossom
know! Blossom was so fond of Jemmy Three, and she had so few folks to
be fond of.

A surprise was waiting for them "out there." The traps were pretty
well loaded! Not full, any of them, but not one of them empty. In
all, there were seventeen great, full-grown, glistening, black
fellows for Blossom to shudder over as she never failed to do--Blossom
was no part of a fisherman.

"He didn't dare to take them all," thought Judith, refusing to let
the Evil Thought get away from her. "Probably he saw us coming. If
he'd let 'em alone there might have been a lot more--perhaps there
were fifty!"

"One, two, three,"--counted Blossom slowly. "Why, Judy, there's
seventeen. You didn't s'pose there'd be as many as seventeen, did
you? Isn't that a splendid lot?"

"Not as splendid as fifty," answered Judy, assured now that there had
been as many as that.

"Seventeen from fifty is thirty--thirty-two," whispered the Evil Thing
in her ear. Evil things cannot be expected to be good in arithmetic
or anything else. "So he helped himself to thirty-two, did he! Nice
haul! Thirty-two big fellows will bring him in--"

"Don't!" groaned Judith.

"I don't wonder you say 'don't!' Thirty-two nice big fellows would
have brought _you_ in a pretty little sum. You could have put it away
in a stocking in your bureau drawer, for the Blossom-fund."

"Oh, I was going to! I was going to!"

"Thought so--well, you'll have to get along with seventeen. That comes
of having boys like that for friends!"

"He isn't my friend!" Judith cried sharply to the Evil Thing in her
breast. "He never will be again. If it wasn't for Uncle Jem I'd never
look at him again as long as I live!"

All this little dialogue had gone on unsuspected by the little pink
"mastif" in the bow of the little dory. Blossom had been busy edging
out of the reach of the ugly things in the bottom of the boat. If
Judith had only edged away from her Ugly Thing!

Another surprise was even now on the way--a surprise so stupendous and
unexpected that, beside it, the lobster-surprise would dwindle away
into insignificance and be quite forgotten for the rest of the day.
And oddly enough, it was to be Blossom who should be discoverer
again.

"I'm going a little farther out and fish awhile," Judith announced
over her last trap. "I've got all my tackle aboard and maybe I can
find something Mrs. Ben will want. You sit still as a mouse, Blossom,
for I cant't be watching yo