"Yes, just as plain as anything."
"Now you, Beely, turn the crank."
"Oh, oh!" cried Betty. "Up comes the little fish, straight, straight up, just as natural as if it was alive."
"Now let me see," besought the small boy. "You come, Betty, and turn the crank."
"Here, Beely," said Antoine, "you and Betty can both look on the same time if you squeeze beside her. Fish shanty ain't big like the town hall?"
"Well, I should say not," admitted Billy. "Why, isn't it nice, Antoine? You can sit right still on your box and reach all the walls, can't you? Oh, that's the way you do it? When you see a fish coming, you just keep watching him, and then you reach over and turn the crank and wind up the line, and then the pretend fish comes up higher and higher. But then, I don't see how you spear the real fish."
"Well, Betty and Beely, I will show you. You see the decoy fish she come quiet through the water when we bring it up with a windlass. If we brought it up with one jerk, our trout would be scare away. Fish no fool, I tole you that. When my fish come to the top of the water, so I'm sure of my aim, I send my spear after him."
"But I should think you would lose the spear," said Billy. "My, it's heavy!"
Antoine pointed to the rope which tied the spear to a ring fastened in the roof.
"Wish a fish would come along now," said Billy, still gazing into the depths beneath.