196 Sporting Sketches 



Osprey into the wind, otherwise the tackle might 

 have suffered. As it was, there followed quite a 

 fight, which ended with the coming aboard of a 

 grand blue, which felt like a ten-pounder and which, 

 upon unprejudiced scales, actually did weigh a 

 trifle over eight pounds. He gave me quite a start, 

 too, by viciously snapping at my fingers. There 

 was no mistake about it the beggar tried to bite 

 so I gave him a course in marline-spike seamanship 

 by swatting him over the head with that useful and 

 singularly effective implement. 



Then the breeze failed, and while the little engine 

 was slowly " kickin' " the Osprey homeward, I fell 

 asleep forward and dreamed of brutal blues that bit 

 and of a crew that swung itself hither and yon with 

 surpassing ease. When finally that crew sat before 

 me, and after twitching its eyebrows up and 

 down, scratching with swift upward strokes at its 

 ribs, and showing some amazing teeth it calmly 

 produced a cocoanut from one armpit and a banana 

 from the other, I woke up. And there, right 

 beside me, was that crew, monkeying with the jib- 

 sheet, or some old thing, for the Osprey was very 

 near her nest. 



