The men waited and looked at the boys, who began fishing.
"Heugh!" Dan's lines twitched on the scored and scarred rail.

"Now haow in thunder did dad know?
Help us here, Harve.

It's a big un.
Poke-hooked, too." They hauled together, and landed a goggle-eyed twenty-pound cod.

He had taken the bait right into his stomach.
"Why, he's all covered with little crabs," cried Harvey, turning him over.
"By the great hook-block, they're lousy already," said Long Jack.
"Disko, ye kape your spare eyes under the keel." Splash went the anchor, and they all heaved over the lines, each man taking his own place at the bulwarks.
"Are they good to eat ?" Harvey panted, as he lugged in another crab-covered cod.
"Sure.

When they're lousy it's a sign they've all been herdin' together by the thousand, and when they take the bait that way they're hungry.
Never mind how the bait sets.