"Oh!" cried Dick, who could say no more, and he even failed to think of having a fresh bait put on, as he knelt in the bottom of the boat gazing at his prize, whose sides were gorgeous with golden orange and bronze, darkening off on the back to a deep olive-brown, like sea-weed, while the lower parts of the fish seemed to have been rubbed with burnished brass. "Is it good to eat?" he cried at last. "Almost as good as any fish that swims," said Will. "But it's as beautiful as a gold-fish almost," cried Dick; "quite as beautiful as a carp--more, I think--like those golden tench I once saw. Why, where are you going now?" "Right out," said Will; "you don't mind, do you? It won't be rough." "No, I don't mind," said Dick stoutly. "I should not mind if it was rough. At least I wouldn't say I did." "Hor! hor! hor!" laughed Josh again. "That's right. But it won't be rough. We're going out about two miles straight away now. We ought to have been there by now on the ground." "But how can you tell where the ground is?" said Dick innocently. "Does it come above water?" "Do what come above water?" said Josh. "The ground." "What ground?" "Didn't you say you ought to be on the ground?" said Dick. "Of course you mean the bottom of the boat." "Get out!" said Josh. "The fishing-ground's five fathom under water." "Then how can you tell when you get there?" "Bearin's," growled Josh. Dick looked helplessly at Will, while Josh muttered to himself about "gashly ignorance." "What are bearings?" said Dick at last. "I'll show you," said Will, "when we get out there by and by. We have to guide ourselves, you know, out at sea by--" "Compass. I know," cried Dick. "Ah! that's out of sight of land," said Will quietly. "Along shore we sail by bearings that we take--hills and points and trees, so as to lay the boat where we like." "But I don't see how you can," cried Dick. "Don't you?" said Will good-humouredly, while Josh went on growling to himself and looking disgusted down between his knees. "Well, I'll try and show you. Now, you look right behind you and you can see that we're opening out that old chimney on the top of Toll Pen." "Opening out!" said Dick. "I don't know what you mean." "Well, beginning to see it come into sight." "Oh! now I know," cried Dick. "I say, is there anything the matter with him?" he added, for Josh was rumbling with indignation at their visitor's "gashly ignorance." "No, there arn't," growled Josh roughly. "Only they did ought to teach you something at school." "They do," said Dick, laughing merrily; "but they don't know anything about bearings and openings out, and such things. It's all Latin, and Greek, and algebra, and Euclid." "And none o' them won't teach you how to lay a boat to her bearin's on a bit o' good fishing-ground," said Josh; "and it's a good job for you, my lad, as you've run acrost us. We will teach you something afore we've done."