Wing Fan came out, grinning. He did not share his master’s reputed dislike for ladies.
230He ushered them all into the big library and went off to notify the Captain, who was down in the meadow superintending the hay cutting.
“I am afraid we are an awful nuisance, but my prophetic soul tells me he will enjoy the joke and be pleased to have us come to him.” Marian was bolstering up her courage.
“Of course he will. You don’t suppose anybody could resist this crowd, do you?” Alice encouraged.
Captain Clarke was both pleased and amused. They were so excited they all talked at once, and it took several minutes for him to get command of the situation.
“They have the advantage in fishing early in the day, but I’ll impress Wing Fan and we’ll have more fish, if I have to get out a net and seine them. We’ll go down to the long hole now and see what we can do, and Wing will come as soon as he gives the men their dinner. If there is a fish in the creek you can depend on Wing to lure him. He just goes out and crooks his little finger and they begin to hunt for the hook,” he explained to Gertie.
The Captain proved to be an expert fisherman himself. He showed them all his little stock of fisherman’s tricks and they had a good catch by noon when Marian and Alice stopped to prepare the lunch. About two o’clock Wing Fan appeared, his face one broad, yellow smile.
231“Big missee and little missee have most,” he assured them.
Chicken Little and Katy and Gertie laid off and perched some distance up the bank behind Wing to watch his methods. He didn’t seem to do anything different, but the fish certainly came to his hook in a most astonishing manner.
They fished until four, and the catch exceeded their wildest expectations. They wanted to leave some with the Captain, but he wouldn’t hear of it. “If the men have more than you, you can send me some of theirs. I should like to see if the flavor is better.”