bite."

I followed this advice and sat for some minutes, dangling a big
angle-worm out in the deep water, off the inner wall of the dam, while
my three companions watched the water. Presently Theodora whispered that
they were coming again; and then I saw what was, indeed, from a
piscatorial point of view, a rare spectacle. First the water waved deep
down, near the bottom, and seemed filled with dark moving objects,
showing here and there the sheen of light brown and a glimmer of
flashing red specks, as the sunlight fell in among them. For an instant
I was so intent on the sight, that I quite forgot my hook. "Bob it now,"
whispered Kate, excitedly.

I had scarcely given my hook a bob up and down when, with a grand rush
and snap, a big trout grabbed worm, hook and all. Instinctively I gave a
great yank and swung him heavily out of the water, my pole bending half
double. The trout was securely hooked, or I should have lost him, for he
fell first on some drift logs and slid down betwixt them into the water
again. Seizing the line in my hands, since the pole was too light for
the fish, I contrived to lift him up and land him high and dry on the
dam, close at the feet of the girls.

"Well done!" Theodora whispered. "Oh, isn't he a noble great one, and
how like sport he jumps about! Too bad to take his life when he's so
handsome and was having such a good time among his mates!"

"Unhook him quick and throw in again!" cried Kate. "Be careful he don't
snap your fingers. He's got sharp teeth. Don't let him leap into the
water. That's good! We'll keep him behind this log. Now bait again with
a good new worm."

"But they've gone," said Theodora. "They darted away when you pulled
this one out. It scared them."

I had experienced some difficulty in disengaging my hook from the
trout's jaw, but at length put on another worm and dropped in again, not
a little excited over my catch.

"I'm afraid they will not come around again," said Ellen. Kate, too,
thought it doubtful whether we would see anything more of the school. "I
guess they will beat a retreat up to North Pond," said she.

We sat quietly waiting for eight or ten minutes and were losing hope
fast, when lo! there they all came again--swimming evenly around the
foot of the pond in the deep part, as before, winnowing the water slowly
with their fins.

Again I waited till my hook was in the midst of the school; and this
time I had scarcely moved it, when another snapped