"You would have, if I could get at your arm," said John, who didn't believe she had a bite. "I have, truly," she said, excitedly. "Look!" All came tramping, crowding about her. "I feel him pull," she said, eagerly. "Well, get him out," said Luke. "Shall I pull him or jerk him?" Elsie was nearly breathless. "If I knew about his size, I could tell you," said Luke. "If he's big, give him a dignified pull; if he's a little chap, jerk him; no business to be little." "Oh! I'm afraid it will hurt him," said Puss. "Out with him!" said Luke. "I'm afraid the line will break," said Elsie, all in a quiver. "No, it wont," said John. "The rod might snap," said Elsie. "Here, let me take the rod," John proposed. "No, no; I'm going to catch the fish myself," Elsie said, in vehement protest. "Then jerk, sharp and strong," her brother said. Elsie made ready; steadied her eager brain; planted her feet firmly; braced her muscles by her will; and then, with a shriek, threw up her rod, "as high as the sky," Puss said. There was a fleeting vision of a dripping white-bellied fish going skyward; and then a faint thud was heard. "She's thrown it a half-mile, or less, in the bushes," said Luke. "And there's her hook in the top of that tree," said John. "What gumps girls are when you take them out-of-doors!" All went into the bushes to look for the astonished fish. They looked, and looked, and looked; listened for its beating and flopping against the ground. After a while, Luke said he thought it must be one of the climbing fish described by Agassiz, and that it had gone up a tree. "I mos' found it twice't; but it was a frog an' a lizar', 'stead uv the fish," said Jacob Isaac. To this day, it remains a mystery where Elsie's fish went to. Jacob Isaac climbed the tree to rescue Elsie's hook and line, while the other boys went down the stream to find a cat-fish hole that they had heard of. "Don't pull at the line that way," Puss said to the thrasher in the tree-top; "you'll break it. There, the hook is caught on that twig. You must go out on the limb and unhitch it." "Lim' hangs over the watto," Jacob Isaac said; but he crawled out on it, and reached for the hook. Then Elsie shrieked, for crashing through the branches came Jacob Isaac, and splashed back-foremost into the water. Then there was confusion. Jacob called to the girls to help him; they called to the boys to help; the boys, ignorant of the accident, shouted back that they were going on to where they could have quiet, and went tramping away. Then Elsie tried to tell Jacob Isaac how to swim, while Puss Leek darted off to where the horses were tethered. She mounted the one she had ridden--a gentle thing, aged eighteen. Then she came crashing through the bushes and brush, clucking and jerking the bridle, dashed down the bank, and plunged into the stream. [Illustration: "HE KNELT ON THE BANK TO FIX HIS BAIT."]