Freddie did not answer for a moment. He had wound around his hand part of a heavy cord, which Mrs. Bobbsey knew was a line used to catch big fish. Freddie was really trying to catch something, it seemed.
“Is there a hook on that line?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, fearing, after all, that her little boy might have found one.
“Oh, no, Mother, there’s no hook,” Freddie answered. “I just tied on—-” And then a queer look came over his face. His hand, with the line wound around it, was jerked toward the open porthole and the little boy cried:
“Oh, I got a fish! I got a fish! I got a big fish!”
[CHAPTER XV—“LAND HO!”]
Mrs. Bobbsey at first did not know whether Freddie was playing some of his make-believe games, or whether he really had caught a fish. Certainly something seemed to be pulling on the line he held out of the porthole, but then, his mother thought, it might have caught on something, as fishlines often do get caught.
“I’ve caught a fish! I’ve caught a fish!” Freddie cried again. “Oh, please somebody come and help me pull it in!”
Flossie was so excited—almost as much as was her brother—that she forgot all about her lost doll.
“Have you really caught a fish?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“I really have! I guess maybe it’s a shark or a whale, it’s so big, and it pulls so hard!” cried Freddie.