By and by little Jacob looked up at Captain Solomon. "Why do the men
want to catch so many of them?" he asked. "Because it's fun?"

"Well, no," said Captain Solomon. "It is great fun. I've done it myself,
in my day. But these fish are very good to eat. Any kind of fresh meat
is a good thing, when you know there's nothing better than salted meat
to fall back on. You'll see how good they are, at dinner."

Little Jacob sighed. "Oh," he said. "Thank you for showing me."

And he was rather sober as he went back to his place on the bowsprit to
watch. But when dinner time came, he ate some of the flying fish and
thought they were very nice, indeed.

And that's all.

THE LOG-BOOK STORY

Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.

The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their
office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.

Once, in the long ago, the brig _Industry_ had sailed from Boston for a
far country, and little Jacob and little Sol had gone on that voyage.
Little Jacob and little Sol were very much interested in the things that
they saw every day and in the things that were done every day on the
ship by the sailors and by the mates and by Captain Solomon. But those
things that happened the same sort of way, every day, interested little
Jacob more than they did little Sol. Little Sol liked to see them a few
times, until he knew just what to expect, and then he liked to be out on
the bowsprit, seeing the things that he didn't expect; or he liked to be
doing things. And the things that he did were the sort of things that
nobody else expected. So the things that little Sol did were an
amusement to the sailors and to the mates; and sometimes they were an