“There used to be several inlets across the beach—one about ten miles below—and then we had splendid oysters and ducks plenty. There came a tremendous storm one winter that washed up the sand and closed the inlet, and so it has remained ever since.”
“Can’t they be dredged out?”
“The people would pay a fortune to any man who did that, if he could keep it open. In the fall, we go after ducks twenty miles when we want any great shooting; but we kill a good many round here.”
“How do you catch the blue-fish that you spoke of?”
“They chase the bony-fish along the shore, and when they come close in, you can stand on the beach, and throw the squid right among them, I took sixteen hundred pounds in half a day.”
“Phew!” was the universal chorus.
“‘Lige was there, and he knows whether that is true. They averaged fifteen pounds apiece. On those occasions, the only question is whether you know how to land them, and can do it quick enough.”
“Your hands must have been cut to pieces.”
“Not at all; you’ll never cut your hands if you don’t let the line slip.”