‘That was naughty of her,’ said Beatrice; ‘I will not let our good dog Wolf bite any sail.’
The wind filled the sails, and the boat glided quickly through the water. The children began to enjoy the pleasant movement, and liked to watch the mark in the water that the boat left behind it; and asked if they might put their hands into the clear green water, which grandmamma allowed them to do.
Alice soon cried out, ‘Oh, grandmamma, how far I can see into the sea! How deep it is, and how green, and how pretty!’
‘Very pretty,’ repeated Beatrice; and both children looked long over the side of the boat.
‘What is Jack doing now?’ asked the children suddenly, when they saw the boy unwind some cord from a piece of wood, and throw the end of it into the sea; then he threw another piece of cord, and then another, till at last there were four strings in the sea, two on each side the boat.
‘He is fishing,’ said grandmamma.
‘Fishing!’ cried Alice; ‘please tell me how he is fishing.’
‘Each of these cords has a hook at the end of it,’ said grandmamma, ‘and on each hook is a little bit of fish or meat. When the fish try to catch hold of it to eat it, the hook sticks in their throats, and they cannot get away.’
Just now Bartlett called to his boy, and said, ‘Jack, you have got a fish on that line;’ so Jack pulled up the line—and it was a very long piece of string—and at the end hung a fish. The boy took it and put it into the other end of the boat, and threw his line in again. The fish jumped at first up and down, but it soon lay still; and soon several other fishes were caught, and all thrown together into the end of the boat.
The little girls were sorry, for they did not like seeing the fishes hurt.