They're a splendid lot.

Enough for the whole cabin-full." "Dat's a fack.

Cap'in Dab Kinzer's de sort ob capt'in fo' me, he is!" "How much, then ?" "Twenty-five dollars for the lot.

They're worth it,--specially if we lose Ham's boat." Dab's philosophy was a little out of gear; but a perfect rattle of questions and answers followed in French, and, somewhat to Frank Harley's astonishment, the bargain was promptly concluded.

Fresh fish, just out of the water, were a particularly pleasant arrival to people who had been ten days out at sea.
How were they to get them on board?
Nothing easier, since the little "Swallow" could run along so nicely under the stern of the great steamer, after a line was thrown her; and a large basket was swung out at the end of a long, slender spar, with a pulley to lower and raise it.
There was fun in the loading of that basket: but even the boys from Long Island were astonished at the number and size of the fine, freshly-caught blue-fish, to which they were treating the hungry passengers of the "Prudhomme;" and the basket had to go and come again and again.
The steamer's steward, on his part, avowed that he had never before met so honest a lot of Yankee fishermen.