“Oh! I dunno,” said Bob; “I knows I never got none, and other folks got lots; and I says to my mate as it warn’t fair.”
“Well, but why didn’t you have some, Bob?” said Philip; “Papa meant it for everybody that had been helping.”
“I knows that,” said Bob; “but nobody asked me to have none.” And then Bob filled his pipe again, and looked very sulky as he went on smoking, for it was very evident that his dignity had been much touched over the beer business. However, he soon seemed to come to the conclusion that the lads before him were not to blame for his coming short of the needful refreshment; and, turning the lighted tobacco out of his pipe into the mill-dam, where it fell with a “ciss,” he led the way into the mill, from whence he produced three light poles and some string, and from out of a cool damp flower pot three hideous-looking looped up bunches of worms, each with a leaden weight in the centre.
“There,” said Harry, “I knew he would have them. Hooray, boys! come on.”
Bob soon tied the bunches, or bobs, of worms strung upon worsted to a string, fastened to the poles, and then posted each boy in what he considered an eligible spot on the banks of the deep mill-dam. He took Fred, as being the novice, under his own especial charge, and began to instruct him how to proceed.
“There, yow see,” said Bob, “yow lets the bob sink gently down to the bottom, and, when yow feel it touches, just draw it up a little ways till the eels sticks their teeth into it, and then pull it gently up a-top, and then out wi’ ’em in a minute.”
All this time Dusty Bob was suiting the action to the word, and showing Fred how it should be done, waiting all the while till one of the eels did stick his teeth in, which was in the course of a very few minutes, when Bob softly raised his bob to the surface, lifted it out quickly, and a fine eel dropped off into the water again.
“Never mind,” said Bob, “try again; that’s the way.”
So this time Fred tried, and let his great bait sink to the bottom, when, directly after, he felt something go “tug, tug” at it, and then again, quite sharply. At first he hardly knew what to do, but another tug made him draw the bait up to the surface, when he distinctly saw an eel leave it, giving a vicious snatch at the bait as it did so.
Just then Harry landed a fine fellow, which gave a serpentine sort of a wriggle, and regained the water in a moment.