When Jack reached the bottom, he grasped the coral stems, and crept along on his hands and knees, peeping under the sea-weed and among the rocks.

I observed him also pick up one or two large oysters, and retain them in his grasp, as if he meant to take them up with him, so I also gathered a few.

Suddenly he made a grasp at a fish with blue and yellow stripes on its back, and actually touched its tail, but did not catch it.

At this he turned towards me and attempted to smile; but no sooner had he done so than he sprang like an arrow to the surface, where, on following him, I found him gasping and coughing, and spitting water from his mouth.

In a few minutes he recovered, and we both turned to swim ashore.
"I declare, Ralph," said he, "that I actually tried to laugh under water." "So I saw," I replied; "and I observed that you very nearly caught that fish by the tail.