oks, too merry by half to touch
them; and then they came merrily up, and poked their heads out close to
the top of the water, and stared at the merry-makers in the yacht, and
they seemed to be whispering to one another, "O, what a jolly lot of
coves they are, to be sure! O, don't they wish they may catch
us?--don't they though?" and then they dropped down again to look at the
pretty hooks; but only the sober-sided ones that had no idea of being
merry went near enough to bite, and these were surely bitten in return;
for, if the hook once got into their red gills, they found themselves
jerked up before they could say Lobster, and heard merry voices shouting
round them, to their great astonishment.

And of these sober-sided fishes who were so unfortunate as to have no
idea of being merry, the Captain and his little friends caught as many
as they wanted; and then the Captain said to his little friends, "Put
away your fishing-tackle now, and come down below into the little cabin,
and I'll surprise you." And, sure enough, he did surprise them,--quite
as much, perhaps, as if some fairy queen had come, and called them to a
fairy banquet; as much indeed, perhaps, as if they had themselves
suddenly been turned to fairies, and were doing something that was never
even dreamed of by mortal child before; for, while they had been
fishing, Main Brace had, by direction of the Captain, been building up a
fire in the little stove, and in the very centre of the cabin he had set
out a little table, and upon the little table there was spread the
whitest little cloth, and on the cloth were set all round the daintiest
little plates and knives and forks, and the neatest little napkins, and
the cunningest little cups, that were ever seen.

"And now," spoke up the Captain, laughing all the while to see his
little friends so much surprised, "fall to, fall to! for we're going to
have a jolly feast, or my name isn't Ancient Mariner, nor John Hardy
either." And the Captain poured out some fresh foaming milk into the
cunning little cups, from a big stone jug; and he brought some fresh
white rolls and some golden butter from a little locker; and soon
afterward he drew from the little stove some dainty little fish, and
dropped one, all crisp and hissing hot, upon each dainty little plate;
and now for half an hour there was busy work enough for the dainty
little knives and forks. The Captain's little stove proved to be
everything that one could wish for