Then a change would come over me, and I would think to myself: Well, I’m very glad I’m not a fish; for just as I would be watching some lovely mackerel-like fellow with a flashing back of mottled blue and purple, some monster ten times his size would make a dart at him and engulf him in his capacious throat. And as I watched the larger fish seize their food, it seemed to me that once they could get within easy range they seemed to suck their prey into their jaws, drawing it in with the great rush of water they sent through their gills.
It was not tempting at such times and above all when one used to see a thin grey fellow, six or eight feet long, seeming to sneak by the side of the ship, or just astern, where there was an eddy. Every now and then it would turn half over and show the pale under parts as it made a snatch at something that looked good to eat; and after a good many tries the sailors managed to catch one by means of a hook baited with a piece of ham that had been condemned as high.
It was only about six feet long, and when it lay on the wet deck thrashing about with its tail I thought that after all a shark was not such a dangerous-looking creature as I expected, and I said so to my uncle.
“Think not, Nat?” he said.
“Why, no, uncle, I don’t think I should be afraid of a shark; I think I could catch such a fellow as that with a rod and line.”
“Ah! Nat, some of them run up to fifteen or twenty feet in length,” he said; “and they are awfully savage brutes. Such a one as this would be enough to kill a man.”
“He don’t look like it, uncle,” I said. “Why, look here!”
I ran to where the shark lay, and stooping down, seized it with both hands by the thin part just before where the tail forked, meaning to give it a shake and drag the brute along the deck; but just as I got tight hold the creature seemed to send a wave down its spine, and with one flip I was sent staggering across the deck to fall heavily at full length, the crew and passengers around roaring with laughter at my discomfiture.
I was so angry and mortified that I jumped up, opened my great jack-knife, and was rushing at the shark, when my uncle laid his hand upon my arm.
“Don’t be foolish, Nat, but take your lesson like a man. You will not despise the strength of a shark for the future.”