Elsie held her breath at the sight. The water rose to the flanks, but Puss kept her head steady, sat her saddle coolly, and, when Jacob Isaac appeared, put out a resolute hand, and got hold of his jacket,--speaking, meanwhile, a soothing word to the horse, which was now drinking. She got the boy's head above water. "I'll hold on to you; and you must hold on to the stirrup and to the horse's mane," she said. Jacob Isaac, without a word, got hold as directed. Puss held on with a good grip, as she had promised, and the careful old horse pawed through the water to the bank--only a few yards distant, by the way. "Thankee, Miss Puss," is what Jacob Isaac said, as he stretched himself on a log to dry. "Puss, you're a hero," is what Elsie said, adding immediately: "Those hateful boys! Great protectors they are!" John had found up-stream a deep hole in the shade of some large trees. Just above it the creek tumbled and foamed over a rocky bed. John said to Luke: "It just empties the fish in here by the basketfuls. All we've got to do is to empty 'em out,"--and he knelt on the bank to fix his bait. But Luke was not satisfied. "You'll never catch any fish there," said he. "The current's too swift." And off went he, to look for a likelier place. Yet neither of the boys had better luck than when with the girls, and both soon went back to them. When Elsie's vivid account of the rescue had been given, the boys stared at Puss with a new interest, as though she had undergone some transformation in their brief absence. Then somebody suggested that they must hurry up and catch something for dinner. So all five dropped hooks into the water, everybody pledged to silence, Fishing was now business; it meant dinner or no dinner. For some moments, the fishers sat or stood in statuesque silence, eyes on the corks. Then Jacob Isaac showed signs of excitement. "I's got a fish, show's yer bawn," he called, dancing about on the bank. "Let me see it," John challenged. "Aint pulled it out yit," said Jacob Isaac, jumping and capering. "What's the matter with you? What are you cavorting about in that style for?" John asked. "Playin' 'im!" answered Jacob Isaac, running backward and forward, and every other way. "Is that the way they play a fish?" Elsie said, gazing. "I never knew before how they did it." She went over to where the jubilant fisherman was yet skipping about, and asked if she might play the fish a while. "Law, Miss Elsie! he'd pull yo' overboa'd! Yo' couldn't hol' 'im no maw 'n nuffin. He's mighty strong; stronges' fish ever did see."