"If you find such strange fish as that, it must be worth going out." "All right, I shall be glad of your company," replied the Captain; "only, mind, you'll have to work your passage, and help hauling in the trawl." "I agree to that," said the other; and, the matter being thus settled, it was arranged that they should proceed the following day on their expedition, if the weather were favourable and nothing occurred to alter their plans.

Nellie was specially granted permission to accompany the party, much against the wish of her mother, who declared that she would spoil all her things to a certainty; saying besides, that, from what she had gathered of the conversation, she did not believe trawling was a very ladylike pursuit, "for little girls, at all events." However, all the same, Miss Nellie was up betimes the next morning, and sallied out with Bob and his father, whose pet she was, just as the early milkman was coming his rounds; the trio getting down to the beach punctually at seven o'clock, the hour fixed by the Captain for their start.
Here they found the old sailor and Dick, ready and waiting for them; when, going off in the little dinghy belonging to the _Zephyr_, although the boat had to make a couple of passages to and fro, being only capable of accommodating two passengers besides proud Dick the sculler, they were soon all on board.
The cutter, then, having her jib and mainsail already set, had only to slip her moorings, and was off and away, bowling out seaward before the breeze, which was blowing from the land.
The morning was bright and balmy; and the sun having risen some hours earlier even than the very early risers of the party, its beams by this time warmed the heavens and lit up the landscape, the rose-tints of dawn being succeeded by a golden glow all over the sky, the sea dancing in sympathy and sparkling in the sunlight--being altogether too merry to look blue.
It did not take the little craft long, running before the wind with a slack sheet, to reach the Horse Shingle shoal, beyond the outlying fort, and near the Warner light-ship, where lay the fishing-ground, or "bank," which the Captain had described as being especially favourable for their sport.
"Now," said the old sailor, "the time for action has at last arrived.
We must get ready to `shoot' the trawl." "You are not going to fire ?" cried Nell in alarm, hearing him use the technical term he had employed.

"I'm so afraid of guns." "No, my dear," he answered chuckling, "I meant pitching the trawl over the side, just in the same way as you say `shooting' coals or rubbish.
Are you ready at your end, Strong ?" "Yes, I'm all right," replied the barrister, who had been ably helping the Captain in arranging the meshes of the net along the starboard- gunwale, out of the way of the swing of the boom, and getting the trawl- beam across the stern-sheets of the cutter; while Bob and Dick attended to the sheets and tiller.

"Fire away, Captain Dresser!" "Well, then, let us heave over," sang out the Captain, in his quarter-- deck voice, as he called it.

"One--two--three--off she goes!" So, with a dull plunge, the trawl was "shot," the old sailor and Mr Strong quickly pitching over the side, after it, the bunchy folds of the net; when the guy-rope fastened to the bridle of the beam was secured to the bowsprit-bitts and then again to a thole-pin aft, so as to prevent its getting under the keel.
The boat was then allowed to fill her jib and drift out with the ebbing tide, keeping a straight course for the Nab, and steering herself by means of the dragging net astern; neither the services of Bob nor of Dick being required any further at the helm under the circumstances.
"You can light your pipe now, if you like," said Captain Dresser to Mr Strong, when this was satisfactorily accomplished.