"Now watch," said Uncle Harry, as he tossed it into the tub.
"It's gone," said Alice and Charley at the same time.
"No, it has only shrunk again," said their uncle. "But I guess we had better start for home. It is 'most supper-time, and if we don't get home, your mamma will think that I have taken you off to be pirates."
As they skimmed over the water toward home, Tom asked, "Are there other kinds of swell-fish in foreign waters?"
"I suppose so," said Uncle Harry. "While in Florida, I formed quite a friendship with a pair of porcupine-fish that lived behind an old log. They would eat worms from my hand, and would even allow me to take them up, but as this was accompanied by an immense puffing up of their bodies, I seldom attempted it."
"What became of them?" asked Alice.
"I do not know," answered Uncle Harry, with mock solemnity. "The pleasantest friendships, like the pleasantest days, must come to an end, and so our acquaintance was stopped short by my leaving for home, as to-day's sport was."
The children reached home in time for supper, tired and happy; but, hungry as they were, they could scarcely stop to eat, so eager were they to tell mamma about the sea-robin and the wonderful swell-fish.