and opens it. And suppose he comes flying to Fairport
and when he lands here he asks where we are. Then when he finds us he
takes us for a long, long ride in his seaplane."
It was great fun supposing. The next morning Bob and Paul went to the
beach all ready to have some more supposes.
But what was that small thing lying on the sand? It looked very much
like a bottle. Yes, it was. It was _the_ bottle!
Bob picked it up and looked rather disappointed. Paul looked
disappointed too. "Our supposes are no good now," he said. "Oh yes,"
cried Bob, "I know a fine suppose. It's so good it's almost true. Let's
pretend a big wave was the parcel postman." When he saw the bottle away
out in the ocean with our names in it, he brought it straight to us.
"Why, of course," said Paul. "The parcel postman had to bring the bottle
to us. He couldn't take it to the whale or to the man with the seaplane.
It wasn't addressed to them."
One day Bob's father took Paul and Bob out fishing. They carried their
bait in a tin can and they took a larger can to hold their fish. They
stood on a high rock and threw their lines out into the deep water. The
fish bit very well. Mr. Johnson caught five or six. But the boys were
so excited they could not wait. They drew up their lines too soon. Once
Paul felt a pull and waited. When he felt another pull he drew in his
line. On it was a very tiny fish. "It's too small to keep," said Mr.
Johnson. So he took it carefully off the hook and threw it back into the
water.
In a little while Bob felt a pull on his line. He held it very still and
waited. Soon there was another pull--a very strong one. Then there came
a jerk that almost threw him down. "Now draw in your line," said Mr.
Johnson. "Steady, steady!" Bob pulled. His line almost broke. He pulled
and tugged and pulled again. Then up came the line and on it was a
fish--a big, beautiful fish flapping and twisting. "Good, good," cried
Mr. Johnson. "That's a prize catch."
How proud Bob felt as he landed his fish. He wouldn't let his father
help take it off the hook. He did it all himself. For a moment he stood
with the beautiful prize fish in his hand. Some people were fishing
near-by and he wanted them to see. He wanted them to know of his prize
catch. He felt very proud. "Look," said one of them; "what a great big
fish!" Bob heard and felt prouder than ever. He threw his fish into the
can as if he were saying, "Oh, that's nothing, I _always_ catch the
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