pull them up and catch
them in the net. And the cork float on Laddie's line would bob up and
down a little as though he, too, had nibbles. But neither of them had
caught anything yet.

Suddenly Laddie felt a hard tug, and he yelled:

"Oh, I got one! I got one! I got the first bite!"

He yanked on his pole. Something brown and wiggling came up out of the
water and flopped down on the wharf. At the same time a little dog that
had run up behind the two boys and was sniffing around, gave a sudden
yelp.

"What's the matter?" cried Russ.

"He's bit by a Sallie Growler! The Sallie Growler you caught bit my dog
on the nose!" exclaimed another boy and he began striking at the brown
thing Laddie had caught, which was now fast to the nose of the dog that
had been eating marshmallows the night before.

CHAPTER XX

THE WALKING FISH

Laddie dropped his fishing-pole. Russ let go of his crab-line, and they
both stood looking at the dog and at the strange boy. The dog was
howling, and trying to paw off from his nose a queer and ugly-looking
fish that had hold of it. It was the fish Laddie had caught and which
the boy had called a "Sallie Growler."

"Cousin Tom told us about them last night," thought Russ. "I wonder why
they have such a funny name, and what makes 'em bite so."

But he did not ask the questions aloud just then. There was too much
going on to let him do this.

The dog was howling, and the new boy was yelling, at the same time
striking at the fish on the end of his dog's nose.

"Take him off! Take off that Sallie Growler!" yelled the boy.

But the brown fish Laddie had caught looked too ugly and savage. Neither
of the little Bunkers was going to touch it and the new boy did not seem
to want to any more than did Russ or Laddie.

As for the dog, he could not help himself. The fish had hold of him; he
didn't have hold of the fish.

Finally, after much howling and pawing, the dog either knocked the fish
off his nose, or the Sallie Growler let go of its own accord and lay on
the pier.

"Poor Teddy!" said the boy as he bent over his pet to pat him. "Did he
hurt you a lot?" The dog whimpered and wagged his tail. He did not seem
to be badly hurt, though there were some spots of blood on his nose.

"I guess he'll be all right if the Sallie Growler doesn't poison him,"
said the boy. "How'd you come to catch it?" he asked, looking from
Laddie to Russ.

"I didn't want to catch it," said Laddie. "I was fi