e are the--oh!"

[Illustration]

For, just ahead of the ship, a school of fish suddenly leaped out of the
water, and went flying about fifteen or twenty feet above the water for
a hundred feet or more. And they kept coming. Little Jacob could hear
the humming of their long fins, but he couldn't see their fins, they
went so fast. Little Sol had thought they were wings; and it was as
nearly right to call them wings as to call them fins.

"Oo--o, Sol!" cried little Jacob. "_Aren't_ they pretty? And aren't they
small? And don't they fly fast?"

"M--m," said little Sol.

"Look at these over there!" cried little Jacob, again. "See! They are
flying faster than the ship is going. They are beating us!"

Little Jacob was pointing to some fish that were flying in the same
direction that the _Industry_ was sailing. They went ahead of her and
dropped into the water.

"H'mph!" said little Sol. "There isn't much wind, anyway. If there was,
I'll bet they wouldn't beat us." There really was a good deal of wind.

"But aren't they pretty colors, Sol?" said little Jacob. "They're all
colors of blue and silvery. I can't see them very plainly, they go so
fast. I wish I could see them plainer."

Captain Solomon was standing near enough to hear what little Jacob said.

"If you'll come inboard, Jacob," said Captain Solomon, "you can see
them. We're catching them."

[Illustration: "THE SAILORS WERE HAVING A GOOD TIME"]

And little Jacob turned his head, and then he scrambled in. Now and then
some of the flying fish flew right across the deck of the _Industry_.
And some of them came down on the deck, and some struck against the
masts and ropes; and the sailors were standing all about, looking
excited, as if they were playing a game. They had their caps in their
hands, and when the fish flew across the deck, they tried to catch
them in their caps. And some they caught and some they didn't; but the
sailors were having a good time, and they laughed and shouted at their
play.

And a sailor who had just caught a fish in his cap brought it to little
Jacob.

"Now you can see it plainer," said Captain Solomon.

Little Jacob looked and he saw a fish that was less than a foot long,
and the color on its back was a deep, ocean blue, and the fins were a
darker blue, and it was all silvery underneath. And it had long fins
coming out of its shoulders, almost as long as the fish, and they looked
very strong and almost like a swallow's wings.