The others said so, too; but the first thing in order was breakfast, and that was very soon made ready.
The water in the kettle, which George had placed over the fire before he opened the door, had had plenty of time to come to the boiling point while they were sitting there on the bench, and it was but a few minutes’ work to make the coffee, lay the table and place upon it some of the delicacies that were brought up from the capacious depths of the camp-baskets.
“Now, if we only had some squirrels for George to broil over the coals, what a breakfast we would have!” exclaimed Dick.
“Don’t grumble with what is set before you, young man,” said Bob, sternly. “It’s not polite. You can’t have any broiled squirrels this morning. The time consumed in shooting and cooking them would be just so much time taken away from our fishing, and we ought to have been anchored over that bass-hole when the sun first touched the water this morning; then we would have caught some fish.”
That was quite true; but still the best part of the morning had not all been lost. Hungry as they were, there were but a very few minutes devoted to breakfast.
There was no time spent in catching minnows for bait, George having been thoughtful enough to procure an ample supply the day before, and neither did it take him long to row the scow out to the bass-hole and bring it to an anchor in the proper place.
The fish were evidently as hungry as the boys had been a short half hour before, and the struggles that ensued between them and their captors were numerous and exciting. They took the bait almost as quickly as it was offered to them, and, although some succeeded in effecting their escape, the most of those that were struck were safely landed, by the aid of the folding dip-net that had found a place in Bob’s basket; and by the time ten o’clock came, George’s guests had caught a larger string than the one they had carried to the village with them the Saturday before.
George himself did not do much fishing. He did not believe in wasting such good things as black bass, so he caught only enough for dinner, and then sat down and watched the others.
When the fish stopped biting he drew up the anchor and pulled back to the cabin, where a great surprise awaited both him and his friends.