"And we're keeping other fellows away, maybe. It is a shame!"
Thomas ran his line in rapidly, with nothing on the hook.
"Cap'n Hull," he said, gravely, "I had the biggest kind of a fish then
I'm sure; but d'rectly I went to pull him in, sir, he took and let go."
"Yaas," muttered the taciturn skipper, "the biggest fish allers falls back inter the warter."
"I've been thinking a little about this matter, too," said Charlie, after a pause, "and I had about concluded we ought to pair off. But I'll be confounded if I know which is the best! They're both nice girls."
"There isn't much choice," Ned replied. "If they were as different, now, as you and me, I'd take the blonde, of course, aw, and you'd take the brunette. But Hattie Chapman's eyes are blue, and her hair isn't black, you know, so you can't call her dark, exactly."
"No more than Laura is exactly light. Her hair is brown more than golden, and her eyes are hazel. Hasn't she a lovely complexion, though? By Jove!"
"Better than Hattie's. Yet I don't know but Hattie's features are a little the best."
"They are. Now, honest, Ned, which do you prefer? Say either; I'll take the one you don't want. I haven't any choice."
"Neither have I."