“Fishing!” cried Dorothy.
“I never went fishing in my life,” complained Lil.
But the other girls of Central High were not like Lil—no, indeed! They had been out with the boys on Lake Luna—both in summer and winter—and every one of them knew how to put a worm on a hook.
Lil squealed at the thought of “using one of the squirmy things.”
“Aw, you give me a pain!” said Bobby. “Don’t act as though you were made of something 104 different from the rest of us. A worm never bit me yet, and I’ve been fishing thousands of times, I guess.”
Lil did not hear her, however. She was the only girl who had not brought fishing tackle. When she saw her six schoolmates going about the work of tolling the finny denizens of Lake Dunkirk onto the bank, she began to be jealous of the fun they were having. White perch, and roach, and now and then a lake trout, were being landed.
Lil got excited. She wanted to try her hand at the sport, too. Yes! Bobby had an extra outfit, and she even cut Lil a pole.
“But I tell you what it is, Miss,” said the black-eyed girl, “I’m going to hold you responsible for this outfit. If you break anything, or lose anything, or snarl the line up, you’ll have to pay me for it. I paid good money for that silk line and those hooks.”
Lil promised to make good if anything happened to the fishing tackle. She took her place on a rock near Bobby and made a cast. The other girls were very busy themselves and paid Lil very little attention.
The fish were biting freely, for the morning was cloudy and these waters about Acorn Island were far from being “fished out.” Bobby hauled 105 in a couple of perch and had almost forgotten about Lil, when the latter said, mournfully: