“No, but it’s good to get mullet for bait,” the fat boy remonstrated; “and as I expect to do lots of fishing on this trip—and it may not always be convenient for Jack to haul the net—why, I thought I had ought to know the ropes.”
“Good boy, Nick!” laughed Jack; “and I’ll be only too glad to show every fellow all I know, which isn’t any too much. Now, here’s the way you gather up the line, so as to let go suddenly. Then you hold the net like this.”
“Sure do ye ate some of the leads?” questioned Jimmy, seeing Jack take several between his teeth.
“Oh! not any! but this is one of the times when a fellow wishes he had been born with three hands. As I haven’t, I must hold these leads by my teeth. The next thing is to swing the whole net around this way, and let fly with a rotary motion, at the same time letting go with your teeth. That is a very important thing to remember, for you might stand to lose a few out of your jaw if you held on.”
“Oh, I see!” remarked George; “and the net flings open as it whirls through the air, falling on the water that way?”
“Just so, with the leads taking the outer edge rapidly down. Then, by pulling at the line, which is tied, you see, to all these strings, the net is drawn shut like a big purse, enclosing anything that was under it when it struck the water.”
One by one they made trials with the net, but all of them proved pretty clumsy. Jimmy was nearly dragged into the shallow water when he made his first attempt.
“Glory be!” he howled, as he put his hand quickly to his mouth; “if I didn’t have the teeth of a horse I do belave I’d have lost the whole set thin. But once bit, twict shy. Nixt toime I’ll let go, rest easy on that. And I’m going to get the hang of that Spanish cast-net, if it takes ivery tooth in me head, so I am.”
“And you’ll do it, Jimmy, never fear,” laughed Jack. “That do-or-die spirit is going to win the day. Here, Nick, try it again. You seem to have got the knack of it pretty well, only you want to throw harder, or the mullet will get away before the net falls on the water.”
Finally the boys tired of the strenuous exertion, and as Josh announced supper ready, they turned their attention to more pleasant duties.