the waves to get his share--had he any share? Because
when they were little brown things they had made vows, did that give
him any rights now?

Of course, if--if things had been different--lobster-things--Judith
might have pursed her lips into that triumphant summons. But--

"Sit still! I'm going to swing her round!" called Judith sharply.
"I've got to go ashore for father's old net. It's in the boat-house."

"You won't leave me, Judy--promise you'll take me out with you!"
pleaded Blossom, eagerly.

"I'll have to," Judith responded briefly. "There isn't time to carry
you home--I don't dare _take_ time."

She made her plans as she went in, and put out again with the clumsy
heap of netting towering at her feet. The thing she meant to do was
stupendous for a girl to attempt alone, but she was going to attempt
it. The shabby old net had lain in its corner, useless, for two
years. Now it should be used--she, Judith Lynn would use it! She was
glad as she pulled seaward again that she had thrown in two
scoops--perhaps when the time came Blossom could make out to use one a
little.

The net was like a long--a very long--fence, with its lower edge
weighted heavily and its upper edge provided with wooden floats, to
insure its standing erect under water. When in position properly it
surrounded the school of fish, completely fencing in the darting,
glimmering, silver fellows. Then the circle could be gradually
narrowed and the fish brought together in a mass, when scoops could
be used to dip them up into the boat.

The school once located, Judith began to circle slowly round it,
"paying out" her fence of netting with no small difficulty, but
gradually surrounding the unsuspected fish, until at length she had
them penned.

"What did I tell you! I told you I'd be the--the mastif, Judy!"
Blossom chattered. "I told you you'd say how thankful you was you
brought that child!"

"How thankful I am!" chattered Judy. Then, launched into the thick of
the arduous work, they both fell into breathless silence and only
worked. It was not much Blossom could do, but she did her little
splendidly. And Judith toiled with all her strength.

They stopped at last, not because there were no more of the
glistening, silver fellows about them, but because the old black dory
was weighted almost to the water's edge. They had to stop. And then
began Judith's terrible hour. For the heavy boat must somehow be
worked back, a weary little at a time, t