and, or you'll lose him!" cried Josh.

The boy obeyed, and drew away at the cord till he could see what looked
like a great silver shuttle darting about in the quivering water, and
then, panting still, he drew out a fine mackerel, with its rippled
sides, glorious with pearly tints, and its body bending and springing
like so much animated steel.

"Oh, you beauty!" cried Dick in a state of excitement. "But I thought
it must have been four times as big; it pulled so."

Will had been rowing, but he now handed the oar to Josh, unhooked the
mackerel, killed it by a blow or two on the head, and then, to Dick's
astonishment and horror, took out his sharp jack-knife and sliced off a
long narrow piece of the silvery-skinned fish close to the tail.

"Oh, what a pity!" cried Dick. "I say!"

"You must have a good bait," said Will quietly, "and a lask from a
mackerel's tail--"

"A what?"

"A long thin piece like this--we call it a lask--is one of the best
baits you can have."

"But it seemed such a pity to cut that beautiful fish."

"Catch another," said Will laughing; and he threw the newly-baited hook
over the side, where, as the lead dragged it down into the clear water,
Dick could see it dart out of sight, looking like a small silvery fish.

"Why, how quick a mackerel must be to catch that as it goes through the
water!" he said.

"Quick as lightning," said Josh. "There, you've got him again."

"So I have," cried Dick, hauling in rapidly now, as the result of his
teaching, and bringing in another mackerel larger than the first.

"I'll take it off for you," said Will.

"No, no, I will. Get me another bait."

"All right!" cried Will.

"Ugh! you nasty cannibal, eating bits of your own brother!" cried Dick,
apostrophising the lovely fish as it lay beating the bottom of the boat
with its tail.

"Hor! hor! hor! hor!" laughed Josh heartily, the idea of the fish being
a cannibal tickling him immensely. "They'll eat their own fathers and
mothers and children too, when they get a chance."

"Mind, or he'll tangle the line," said Will; and he pounced upon the
fish just as it was going to play shuttle in the boat, and weave the
line into a task that it would take long to undo.

Then another bait was hooked on, the line thrown over, and Will resumed
his oar.

"Put her along, Josh," he said.

"Ay, ay, lad," cried the sturdy fellow; and the water began to patter
beneath the bows of the boat, when all at once there