“Ah!” remarked their father slily, “if you had been looking after the net, instead of instructing me in cookery, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“You’re quite right, Strong,” replied the other, with an air of great contrition; albeit his eyes twinkled with fun and his manner was not quite that of a repentant sinner. “I’ve neglected my duties shamefully.”
With these words he set to work anew, disinterring a large skate weighing over twelve pounds from amidst the mud and refuse brought up by the trawl.
The gills of this fish, in the centre of its globular body, had the most extraordinary likeness to a human face; and as the queer-looking creature puffed out these gills, it appeared, as Mr Strong pointed out, just like a fat old gentleman taking a glass of some rare and highly-recommended wine and “washing his mouth out” so as to taste it properly.
“Oh, papa, how funny!” exclaimed Nell. “It is just like that, too! But look, Captain, there’s a ‘soldier crab,’ isn’t it?”
“Yes, my dear, and we’ll keep him for your aquarium; as well as some new sea-anemones and another zoophyte I see here, too. This chap is christened the ‘alcyonium’ by learned naturalists, but is called ‘dead man’s fingers’ by the fisher-folk along shore.”
“What a horrid name!” interposed Nellie, shuddering—“a horrid name!”
“It is so named,” continued the Captain, “because the creature has the advantage of having several bodies instead of one, all radiating from a single stem, like fingers or toes. But now, I think, there’s nothing much of any good left of our shoot, save a few oysters. Those will come in handy presently, eh, Strong?”
“Yes, I shan’t mind,” replied the barrister. “I’m beginning to have an appetite, I think.”
“We’ll have luncheon at once then,” said the old sailor with alacrity, as if this would be a labour of love. “I’m not beginning to have an appetite, because I’ve got one already, and a precious good one, too! Do you think you can pick a bit if you try, eh, young people?”