Then once more the ponderous trawl was hauled on board, with its flapping and splashing prisoners, which were nearly as abundant as before; but there was no turbot this time.
“Don’t matter,” said Dick; “here’s the sauce.”
As he spoke he pointed laughingly to a great lobster which had been out on its travels away from its home amongst the rocks, and had been swept up, to be turned out upon the smack’s deck, to crawl about flapping its tail and opening and closing its pincers, held aloft in the most aggressive way.
“Ah!” said the master thoughtfully, “that won’t do. We must have gone a little too near the tail of the rocks when we tacked.”
“I thought you was going pretty close,” said Josh, “but I said as you know’d best.”
The boxes were dragged forward again, and soles and plaice were thrust in, flapping and springing in their captors’ hands. Then the whiting were sorted into their home, the sundry fish that were worth saving placed in another box, and once more the visitors were allowed to have their turn in the heap, till, amidst such an embarrassment of riches, as the French call it, Dick stopped short with a laughing, puzzled face, to rub his ear.
“There’s such a lot,” he cried. “There’s so much to see, I don’t know what to take first, and what to leave.”
It resulted in nearly everything going overboard,—tiny fish entangled in sea-weed, curious stones, dog-fish, and skates’ eggs, barnacles, pieces of hard English sponge, bones of cuttle-fish, and scallop and oyster-shells; but one basket was set aside for Mr Temple by Will, who stored in it a fair number of delicious oysters and scallops, whose beautiful shells were bearded with lovely weeds like ferns or plumes of asparagus, while one that gaped open showed his flesh to be of the most brilliant orange scarlet hue.
And so it went on hour after hour, the fresh breeze making the trawling most successful, and at every haul there were so many treasures that at last Dick gave up collecting in despair, confiding his opinion to his brother that the happiest life anybody could lead must be that of the master of a trawler.
Towards four o’clock they were sent ashore with Josh and Will, loaded with bucket and basket of the treasures they had found, including a handsome lot of fish for Mr Temple, with the master’s compliments.