TALES OF FISHES 



boat opposite the school of tuna when Dan yelled: 

 "Look out for that bunch of kelp! Jump your 

 bait over it!" 



Then I spied the mass of floating seaweed. I knew 

 absolutely that my hook was going to snag it. But 

 I tried to be careful, quick, accurate. I jumped 

 my bait. It fell short. The hook caught fast in 

 the kelp. In the last piece! The kite fluttered like 

 a bird with broken wings and dropped. Captain 

 Dan reversed the boat. Then he burst out. Now 

 Dan was a big man and he had a stentorian voice, 

 deep like booming thunder. No man ever swore as 

 Dan swore then. It was terrible. It was justified. 

 But it was funny, and despite all this agony of disap- 

 pointment, despite the other boat heading into the 

 tuna and putting them down, I laughed till I cried. 



The fishermen in that other boat hooked a fish 

 and broke it off. We saw from the excitement on 

 board that they had realized the enormous size of 

 these tima. We hurried to get ready again. It 

 was only needful to drag a bait anywhere near 

 that school. And we alternated with the other boat. 

 I saw those fishermen get four more strikes and lose 

 the four fish immediately. I had even worse luck. 

 In fact, disaster grew and grew. But there is no 

 need for me to multiply these instances. The last 

 three tunas I hooked broke the double line on the 

 first run. This when I had on only a slight drag! 



The other boat puddled around in our school and 

 finally put it down for good, and, as the other schools 

 had disappeared, we started for home. 



This was the most remarkable and unfortunate 

 day I ever had on the sea, where many strange fish- 



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