"Oh!" says I, "that is a sentiment I can appreciate, but the comparison is dreadful."
"There is hardly anything in nature which would not be dreadful compared to some females that I know of," says he.
I laid one hand on my bosom and bowed, but the next instant I felt one of those scraggly fiends pulling at my line, and I drew it softly in, hand-over-hand. Oh, how the beastly thing crept and crawled, and spread its scraggles as it nibbled and rose with the bait! I declare it made the flesh creep on my bones.
"That's right, draw gently—lure him up. Ho!"
As he spoke Mr. Burke just slid his net under the varmint, and flashed him up into the air, bait and all.
Sisters, there is no use in talking; if these creatures they call crabs ain't great salt-sea spiders, no such animals exist; and eels ain't fish, that's all.
Oh, I wish you could see them crawl up through the sea-grass and spread themselves. I declare it is just awful.
Well, down went this crab—which they all gloried in, being a great big gridiron of a fellow—into a hole in one end of the boat, and out went my bait after another.
At one great pull I brought up two wapping big fellows at a time, and trolled them on while Mr. Burke scooped them up. Chasing dragon flies in the old times was nothing to it.
E. E. was busy as a bee on her side of the boat, Dempster ladled the animals up for her, till we had a couple of dozen trying to creep away, and fighting each other like chickens in a coop.