“Yes, like a sand-eel! See that!”
“Oh!” said Dick excitedly, as there was a splash astern, and something flashed like silver through the water.
“Little tiny mackerel,” said Will calmly. “There you are. Let it go; pitch the lead over, and that will keep the bait down, and you can let out twenty or thirty yards of line, and then hold on.”
“But won’t that lead sink it to the bottom?” said Dick, as he obeyed his companion.
“It would if we kept still; but rowing like this, it will only keep it down a few feet. If you had no weight, you’d only have the long noses after it, for the bait would be skipping along the top of the water.”
“Long noses!” cried Dick eagerly; “what are they?”
“A-mussy me!” sighed Josh to himself, as he looked pityingly at the young visitor.
“We call the gar-fish long noses,” said Will. “They are long silvery fish with bodies like eels.”
“I’ve seen them at the fishmongers’,” cried Dick. “They’ve regular beaks something like a bird’s.”
“But full of sharp teeth,” said Will. “Those are the fellows, and they’re very hard to catch.”