“We’re going to have a lovely time,” said Janet, as she sat on one of the seats, idly splashing her bare feet in the water that sloshed around on the bottom of the boat. “I wish I had brought one of my dolls with me.”
“You don’t want any doll when you come crabbing,” Teddy answered. “She might fall out of the boat or a crab might get loose and pinch her.”
“That’s so!” agreed Janet. “Oh, Teddy!” she cried, “s’posin’ a crab gets loose in the boat and scrabbles all over? He’ll bite our toes! I wish I’d let my shoes stay on!”
“You can hold your feet up in the air if a crab gets loose,” Teddy told her, after thinking it over, “till I catch him and put him back in the basket.”
“Oh, all right,” Janet remarked, after a moment or two.
She had often seen crabs “skiddering” around on the dock, either after they had crawled out of a basket piled too full or when they had escaped from the net as they were being landed. And once a crab had caught hold of the tip of Janet’s shoe in his claws. Of course he did not hurt the little girl, but, afterward, she could see where the leather had been cut, for a crab can pinch very hard with his claws—often drawing blood from some unlucky fisherman’s finger.
“Well, I hope no crab pinches me,” murmured the little girl.
Teddy was now rowing out toward the middle of the little bay, for there, Jimmie had told him, was the best crabbing. The clumsy punt was not easy to send along, and Teddy was not very strong on the oars. But he and his sister were in no hurry, and they soon found that the tide, which was coming in, helped to carry them along.
“It’s best to catch crabs when the tide comes in,” said Teddy, with the air of an old “sea dog.”
“Why?” asked Janet.