First time, Totty Rainsford shouted, "We've got him!" and immediately rolled off the rocks, head first, into the water. We were all so scared, with the water splashing, and she screaming at the top of her voice, "Save me! Save me!" that Jack got away. She scrambled out pretty lively, and when we got him in again, we were all seized with another fit of laughing at Totty, who, in her moist predicament, was jumping round to dry herself, because she didn't want to go home, that he crawled out as leisurely as possible. But we secured him at last, safe in the pail; and to prevent his crawling out, I clapped my sailor hat over the top of it, and the elastic kept it down tight. We put the pole through the handle and Estella and myself took hold of the ends, and we came near losing him every few minutes, owing to the inequalities of the ground. The pail would slide down to either end, as the pole inclined, and Estella would drop it and scream when she saw the pail traveling noiselessly toward her, and if it hadn't been for my happy thought of putting the hat over him, he'd have got away to his "happy hunting grounds," or rather, waters, in short order. We arrived at the hotel at last, with Jack all safe, and the rest of the girls went to dress for dinner, and left me to find the boys, to help me deposit him in a secure place, for we were sure we should very greatly astonish the boarders and achieve renown as having discovered a new species of marine beast. The boys were in a perfect ecstacy of curiosity to see what the girls had caught. When I carefully took off the hat, I found the water had all leaked out, and his monstership lay kicking and crawling at the bottom. "Ho! ho! ho!" shouted Willie, "is that what-cher call a curiosity?" "Oh, Flossie! you have been dreadfully taken in," said Regy. "Oh, no," I said, "it's this wonderful animal that's been 'taken in,' and he's going to be kept in, too." I began to feel, though, that there was a great laugh somewhere in the future, and that it was coming at our expense. "Why, Flossie! it's nothing but a baby crab," said Regy. "I can get a peck of them in an hour, over in the river." I felt greatly chagrined, and blushed with mortification. The boys kept bursting out laughing every few minutes, asking such questions as: [Illustration: HOW MANY GIRLS DID IT TAKE TO LAND HIM?] "How many girls did it take to land him?" "Was he gamey, Flossie?" "Did ye bait him with a clam-shell, or an old boot? they'll snap at any thing." "Oh! I'd given away my dinner to have been there!" and then Regy would stir him up with a stick, and turn him on his back, all of which caused me to scream every time, and sent tremors all over me. "What-cher goin' to do with him?" inquired Willie. "I shall study his habitudes, and improve my knowledge of the crustacea," said I, giving him a sentence directly out of my text-book. "I shall look at him every day."