TALES OF FISHES 



you have to wait for bonefish. But all at once 

 I got a hard bite. It quite excited me. I jerked 

 and pulled the bait away from the fish and he 

 followed it and took it again. I saw this fish 

 and several others in the white patch of ground 

 where there were not any weeds. But in my excite- 

 ment I did not have out a long enough line, and when 

 I jerked the fish turned over and got away. This 

 was all right, but the next two hours sitting in the 

 sun on that seat with a nail sticking into me were 

 not altogether pleasurable. When I thought I had 

 endured it as long as I could I saw a flock of seven 

 bonefish swimming past me, and one of them was 

 a whopper. The sight revived me. I hardly 

 breathed while that bunch of fish swam right for 

 my bait, and for all I could see they did not know 

 it was there. I waited another long time. The sun 

 was hot — ^there was no breeze — the heat was re- 

 flected from the water. I could have stood all this 

 well enough, but I could not stand the nails. So I 

 climbed down off my perch, having forgotten that 

 all this time the tide had been rising. And as I 

 could not climb back I had to get wet, to the infinite 

 amusement of my brother. After that I fished from 

 the shore. 



Presently my brother shouted and I looked up 

 to see him pulling on a fish. There was a big splash 

 in the water and then I saw his line running out. 

 The fish was heading straight for the framework on 

 which I Iiad been seated and I knew if he ever did 

 get there he would break the line. All of a sudden 

 I saw the fish he had hooked. And he reached the 

 framework all right! 



114 



