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sailor caught them and put one on his hook and the others in his pocket.
Coming back to the pool he swung the hook over his shoulder and circled it
around his head and cast it nearly into the center of the water, where he
allowed it to sink gradually, paying out the line as far as it would go. When the
end was reached, he began drawing it in again, until the crab bait was floating
on the surface.
Trot watched him cast the line a second time, and a third. She decided that
either there were no fishes in the pool or they would not bite the crab bait. But
Cap'n Bill was an old fisherman and not easily discouraged. When the crab
got away he put another on the hook. When the crabs were all gone he
climbed up the rocks and found some more.
Meantime Trot tired of watching him and lay down upon the sands, where she
fell fast asleep. During the next two hours her clothing dried completely, as
did that of the old sailor. They were both so used to salt water that there was
no danger of taking cold.
Finally the little girl was wakened by a splash beside her and a grunt of
satisfaction from Cap'n Bill. She opened her eyes to find that the Cap'n had
landed a silver-scaled fish weighing about two pounds. This cheered her
considerably and she hurried to scrape together a heap of seaweed, while
Cap'n Bill cut up the fish with his jackknife and got it ready for cooking.
They had cooked fish with seaweed before. Cap'n Bill wrapped his fish in some
of the weed and dipped it in the water to dampen it. Then he lighted a match
and set fire to Trot's heap, which speedily burned down to a glowing bed of
ashes. Then they laid the wrapped fish on the ashes, covered it with more
seaweed, and allowed this to catch fire and burn to embers. After feeding the
fire with seaweed for some time, the sailor finally decided that their supper
was ready, so he scattered the ashes and drew out the bits of fish, still
encased in their smoking wrappings.
When these wrappings were removed, the fish was found thoroughly cooked
and both Trot and Cap'n Bill ate of it freely. It had a slight flavor of seaweed
and would have been better with a sprinkling of salt.
The soft glow which until now had lighted the cavern, began to grow dim, but
there was a great quantity of seaweed in the place, so after they had eaten
their fish they kept the fire alive for a time by giving it a handful of fuel now
and then.
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