ft-shell crabs were to be found in abundance at the mouth of the creek
at the head of the cove, and that morning the boys made nets for all
hands--at least, they found the poles and fastened the hoops to them,
while the girls made the bags of strong netting--and after dinner the
whole party trooped away (Mercy excepted) to heckle the crabs under the
stones and snags where Phineas declared they would be plentiful.

The girls were a bit afraid of the creatures at first, when they were
shaken out of the scoops; but they soon found that the poor things
couldn't bite until the new shells hardened. The boys took off their
shoes and stockings and waded in, whereupon Bob suddenly began to dance
and bawl and splash the water all over himself and his companions.

"What under the sun's the matter with you, Bobbins?" roared Tom,
backing away from his friend to escape a shower-bath.

"Oh! he's got a fit!" squealed Isadore.

"It's cramps!" declared Heavy, from the shore, and in great
commiseration.

"For pity's sake, little boy!" cried Bob's sister, "what is the
matter with you now? He's the greatest child! always getting into some
mess."

Bob continued to dance; but he got into shoal water after a bit and
there it was seen that he was doing a sort of Highland fling on one
foot. The other had attached to it a big hardshell crab; and no mortgage
was ever clamped upon a poor man's farm any tighter than Mr. Crab was
fastened upon Bob's great toe.

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" repeated the big fellow, whacking away at the crab
with the handle of his net.

Isadore tried to aid him, and instead of hitting the crab with _his_
stick, barked Bob's ankle bone nicely.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" yelled the youth in an entirely different key.

The girls were convulsed with laughter; but Tom got the big crab and the
big boy apart. Bob wasn't satisfied until he had placed the hardshell
between two stones and wrecked it--smashed it flat as a pancake.

"There! I know that fellow will never nip another inoffensive citizen,"
groaned Bob, and he sat on a stone and nursed his big toe and his bruised
ankle until the others were ready to go home.

They got a nice mess of crabs; but Bob refused to eat any. "Never want
to see even crabs _a la_ Newburgh again," he grunted. "And I don't
believe that even a fried soft-shell crab is dead enough so that it
can't bite a fellow!"

There was a splendid smooth bit of beach beyond the dock where they
bathed, and even Mercy ha