“Oh!” gasped Agnes.
“Yes. Regular cannibals, them pike,” said the woman. “But all big fish will eat little ones.”
“What kind of fish do you catch?” Neale asked.
“Pickerel and pike, whitebait (we calls ’em that), perch, some lake bass and once in a while a lake trout. Trout’s out o’ season. We don’t durst sell ’em. But we eat ’em. They ain’t no ‘season,’ I tell ’em, for a boy’s appetite; and I got three boys and my man to feed.”
At that moment there was a great shouting and barking of dogs outside, and Neale and Agnes went out of the hut to learn what it meant. The Corner House girl whispered to the boy:
“What do you think about those two twelve year old girls coming here to stay and fish through the ice?”
“Great little sports,” commented Neale.
“Well,” exclaimed Agnes, “that’s being too much of a sport, if you ask me!”
[CHAPTER IX—A COLD SCENT]
The barking of the dogs was in answer to the booming note that Tom Jonah sent echoing across the ice. Agnes and Neale found that the two big ice-boats were near at hand.