iterated Silvey. "Never's the day I've been out here that
he hasn't a lot. And look at that," as a shining, squirming object rose
unwillingly from the water. "I'll bet I couldn't catch one if I was
there. It's because he's hunchbacked, I'm telling you."

As John jointed his bamboo pole, he cast a furtive glance at the poor,
misshapen being, and caught a touch of Silvey's superstitious fear.

"Maybe," he admitted, as he reached for the worm can.

Hooks baited, the boys dropped their lines in the water and sat down to
dangle their legs to and fro over the pier's edge as they waited for the
first hint as to the morning's luck. Possibly a quarter of an hour
elapsed before Silvey's light steel rod gave a twitch, to be followed by
another and still another. Its owner jerked a denuded hook high in the
air.

"First bite, first bite!" he shouted, for that honor was ever a point of
spirited contest on the pair's many expeditions.

"Hard?" asked John breathlessly.

"Hard!" repeated Silvey, boastfully exultant. "Hard? Goll-e-e-e, yes.
Didn't you see him? Bent the tip most a foot. Took the worm, too."

Then the jointed bamboo began to shake ever so slightly and John leaned
intently forward.

"Bite?" queried Silvey in turn.

"He's nibbling," said John cautiously without taking his glance from the
flexible tip.

"Wait until he takes the hook," advised Bill. John braced himself and
yanked a luckless perch high in the air. As it came down on the pier
with a thud, his friend sprang to his feet.

"That-a-boy!" he yelled exultantly as his fingers extracted the hook.
John brought out the fish stringer, and the unfortunate minnow, firmly
tied by the gills, was lowered slowly into the water. The pair watched
its spasmodic efforts at escape with a great deal of gusto.

"Ain't so small, is he, John?" asked Silvey optimistically, as he leaned
over and looked down from an angle which only a small boy could maintain
without losing his balance. "Bet you it's going to be a peach of a day."

The pier was now rapidly filling. A plethoric, sandy-haired German
squatted beside the hunchback, watching an unproductive pole with a
patience worthy of a better cause. At John's corner, a party of voluble
loafers joked noisily as they unwound long, many-hooked throwlines and
jointed nondescript rods. Beside Bill, a phlegmatic Scandinavian puffed
morosely at an empty pipe. Just beyond, a fat negress shifted her bulk
from time to time as she baited