arms around and throw out
ink when they get mad?" asked Harry.

"Yes."

"Are they very big?"

"They come in all sizes. There's even such a thing as a giant squid.
For a long time people laughed at the idea that there was any such
monster. They thought he was a myth, like the sea-serpent.

"But one day two fishermen were plying their trade when two great
arms rose out of the sea and clasped their boat and tried to drag it
under.

"Luckily, they had a big knife, and they hacked away at the arms till
they cut them off.

"The cuttlefish--that's another name for it--made the sea about them
as black as tar. But it did not try again.

"They took the arms ashore, and sold them to a man named Dr. Harvey.
Everybody had been making fun of Dr. Harvey because he said there was
such a thing as the giant squid.

"The Doctor hated strong drink, and so the clerks at the store of Job
Brothers here in St. John's were very much surprised when Dr. Harvey
rushed in and shouted: 'I want a barrel of rum!'

"Then he told them what he wanted it for--he wanted to send the giant
squid to the Royal Society in London. The parts of the arms cut off
were nineteen feet long.

"Later on, somebody who heard about it brought him an octopus that was
lying dead on the water, whose reach was forty feet from tip to tip."

"How do they catch the octopus for bait?" asked Harry.

"It's exciting work. You see, besides having arms like a windmill,
with curious sucking saucers on them, the octopus has a beak like a
parrot, with awful teeth, and it can bite like anything.

"You'll see a cluster of rowboats anchored close together, and the
fishermen are jigging up and down a little bright red leaden weight,
bristling with spikes.

"Suddenly there's a stir. The squids have come rushing in, and they
bite at those jiggers like a terrier after a rat.

"When the squids get those spiked weights in their mouths and are
being hauled aboard--look out!

"All of a sudden--just the way people squirt things in the
movies--they shoot out jets of ink at the fishermen.

"It stings like anything if it gets into your eyes and it ruins your
clothes."

"How much do the squid cost when you buy them for bait?" asked Harry,
who had a practical mind.

"Fifteen or twenty cents a hundred for the little ones."

"That isn't much for all that work," said Harry.

Dr. Grenfell smiled. "You'll find that the fishermen do lots of hard
work for very little pay, Harry," he