"They do eat, too," said James. "They eat bait off of the hooks when we
fish for them."
Rollo had forgotten this fact when he said that fishes never ate; and,
having nothing to say in reply to it, now, he was silent, and only
looked at his fish.
"O, I wish I had a fish!" said Henry. "If I had kept my dipper, now, I
might have had one."
"I don't believe you could have caught one," said Rollo.
"Yes, I could; and I believe I will take my dipper, after all, and catch
me a fish."
"No," said Rollo, "you lent me the dipper, and I lent you my basket
instead; and now I must keep it till we get home."
"No," said Henry, "it is _my_ dipper, and I only lent it to you; and I
have a right to it whenever I want it. So you must give it to me."
But Rollo was very far from being convinced that he ought to give back
the dipper then. He had borrowed it, he said, for the whole expedition,
and he had a right to keep it till he got home. Besides, he had a fish
in it, and there was nothing that he could do with him, if Henry took
away the dipper.
But Henry said he did not think of catching a little fish in his dipper,
when he lent it to Rollo. If he had, he should not have lent it to him.
He only lent it to him to get raspberries in. But Rollo insisted that he
had lent it to him for the whole expedition, and to put any thing in it
he pleased.
After some time spent in this discussion, Rollo finally yielded. He was,
in fact, somewhat ashamed of the part he had taken in the former
difficulty, and had secretly resolved to be more good-natured and
yielding in future. So he gave the dipper back to Henry.
Before he did this, however, Henry said that he would be very careful
not to lose Rollo's fish.
"I will only dip the dipper in again," said he, "very carefully, to
catch another fish, without letting yours get out. Then we can carry
both to your house, and put yours in the bowl; and then I can carry mine
home in the dipper."
So Rollo gave the dipper back to Henry, though very reluctantly.
Henry carried it carefully down to the bank of the brook. He stood upon
a little sloping shore of sand and pebbles, and began to watch for the
little minnows which were swimming about in the deep places. He immersed
his dipper partially in the water, being very careful not to plunge it
in entirely, lest Rollo's fish should escape. Whenever he made an
attempt, however, to catch a fish, he was obliged to plunge it in; but
he did it very quick, so as not to give the prisoner, already taken,
time to escape.
At last, a fish, larger than any he had seen, came moving slowly along,
out from a deep place under a large log, which lay imbedded in the bank.
Henry made a sudden plunge after him. He drew up his dipper again,
confident that he had caught him; but, on looking into the dipper, no
fish was to be seen. The bird in the hand, and the bird in the bush,
were both gone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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