But what am I to do for something to eat in the mean time?
If I could only catch a fish!" Just then there was a great commotion in the water, and the pole left sticking in the bank began to bend ominously.

Winn sprang towards it; but as he stretched out his hand it flew back into position, and the flurry in the water subsided.

The wretched line had parted, and the big catfish, from which the boy could have made such a capital supper, was seeking the deepest hole in the river.

The worst of it all was that he had taken Winn's only hook with him, and so put an end to any further efforts for his capture.
The boy could have cried with hunger and vexation.

It wouldn't have done him any good, though, and he knew it; so he began to gather a tin cup full of the water-soaked wheat instead.