one on the
beach."

"Well, you might call 'em legs," answered Cousin Tom, as he flung his
hook and sinker as far as he could out into the ocean. "I guess what
Laddie has found is a skate."

"But he says it's a fish!" exclaimed Russ. "Now you call it a skate! I
guess you're both trying to make up riddles."

"No, Russ," said his father, as he reeled in his line. "The fish Laddie
sees, and I can see it from where I stand, really has some long, thin
fins, which are like legs. And the name of the fish is 'skate,' so you
see they are both right. Come, we'll go and look at it."

And when Russ got to where Laddie was standing over the queer creature
on the beach he had to laugh, for surely the fish was a very queer one.

"Isn't it funny?" asked Laddie.

"I should say so!" cried Russ. "It's as funny as some of your riddles."

And if any of you have ever seen a skate at the seashore I think you
will agree with Russ. Imagine, if you have never seen one, a fish as
flat as a flounder, with a flat, pointed nose sticking out in front.
Away back, under this nose, and out of sight from the top, or the back
of the fish, is its mouth. And the mouth is rather large and has sharp
teeth.

Fastened to the back of the skate is a long, slender tail, like that of
a rat, only larger, and between the tail and the round, flat body on the
under side, are two things that really look like legs. Perhaps the skate
may use them to walk around on the bottom of the ocean, as a horseshoe
crab uses his legs for walking. But a skate can also swim, and in that
way it comes up off the bottom, and often bites on the hooks of
fishermen who do not at all want to catch such an unpleasant fish.

The skate swims, using the things like legs as a fish uses its fins, and
sometimes, when landed on the shore, the fish really seems to be
standing up on these legs, so Laddie was not so far wrong. On each side
of the skate were thin, flat fins, which were something like wings. The
skate had a humpy head and big, bulging eyes.

"What's a skate for?" asked Russ, as he looked at the queer creature.

"And who gave it that name?" Laddie wanted to know.

"My! You two are getting as bad at asking questions as Violet!" laughed
Mr. Bunker. "Well, I'll answer as well as I can. I don't know how the
fish came to be called a skate unless it sort of skates around on the
bottom of the ocean. Though when a skate is dead its tail curls up and
around like the old-fashioned skat