CAPTAIN JACK AND THE BLUE-FISH.

It was dreadfully hot on the sea-shore, and the boys couldn't find much fun in digging in the sand, so they sauntered slowly down the scorching beach to the old wreck, intending to sit upon its shady side and try to keep cool. It was deserted when they arrived, and they had a pretty good time by themselves for about an hour, when who should turn up but old Captain Jack, pulling away as usual upon his pipe! They could always tell without much trouble when the Captain was approaching, he used such very strong tobacco, and blew the smoke on ahead of him in great clouds, which announced his coming some fifteen or twenty seconds before he arrived.

"Hullo!" said he, as he sat down alongside of the boys. "You here? I sort of thought you'd be up at the hotel sitting in a bath-tub full of ice-water a sizzling day like this."

"It is pretty hot, isn't it?" said Tommie. "The thermometer's at eighty-nine up in the hotel office."

"I don't doubt it," said Captain Jack. "But that don't signify much. Everything's high at the hotel. They charged me a quarter for ten cents' worth o' smokin'-tobaccy last week—so I ain't surprised that the mercury's riz to pretty high heights there. What takes me all of a heap is the heat out there on the ocean. It's fearful. I 'ain't seen anything like it since '69, and even then it warn't half as hot."

The boys giggled, and Captain Jack went on. "I been out blue-fishin' all the morning, and I tell you if it's a-sizzlin' in here it's simply a-sozzlin' out there. The boat's all covered with blisters, and her name, where I painted it last week, has just regularly peeled right off; and worst of all, I've teetotally forgot what the name was, so I've got to christen her clean over again."

"She was called the Polly Ann, wasn't she?" asked Bob.

"That used to be her name," said the Captain; "but it hasn't been this summer. It was something like Amber-Jack or Sarah Toodles this year, and I can't remember which. Fact was, she leaked so last summer when she was known as the Polly Ann that people wouldn't hire her to go fishin' in; so, seeing as how I couldn't afford to buy a new boat, I gave her a new name, so's the fishin' folks wouldn't know she was the old Polly Ann; and now this here heat has gone and het her name right off, and I can't remember what it was. Kind of hard luck, I think."

"Very," said the boys. "But why don't you call her the Sarah Toodles anyhow?"

"I'm afeered to. The summer before last she had some such name as that, and she leaked then, bad as ever, and it may be some folks will remember it. I guess I'll call her Fido. Fido's as good a name for a boat as a dog, and it'll give funny fellers a chance to speak of my bark bein' on the seas, and say she's a regular old sea-dog."

"Good idea," said Bob. "Did you catch any fish this morning?"

"Yes," said the Captain, sadly, "but the heat ruined 'em all. It's a shame the way the Weather Bureau lets loose all these hot waves, ruinin' honest men's business—peelin' the names off their boats and spilin' their fish."

"How did it spoil the fish, Captain?" queried Tommie.

"Spoiled 'em for my trade," said the Captain, sadly. "I took two young fellers out to catch 'em. They were fellers that thought there was nothin' so good to eat in this world as broiled blue-fish, and I said I knew where we could catch some beauties, so we struck a bargain and went out. Inside of two hours we'd caught a dozen of the finest yo'd ever seen, and we turned about to come in. 'It's been awful hot,' says one of the fellers. 'Yes,' said the other; 'but we'll make up for our sufferin' in the heat when we have a couple o' those blue-fish broiled and sit down to eat 'em. It makes my mouth water,' says he. Then we came in and landed. We took the fish ashore, and then we found out what had happened."

The old man paused, and pulled mournfully away at his pipe for a full minute.

"Go on," said Bob, softly. "What had happened?"

"They was boiled when we caught 'em, the water was so hot," moaned the Captain. "And if there's anything spoils a blue-fish for broiling, it's to have 'em boiled first!"

"It was too bad," said Tommie. "And wouldn't they take 'em?"

"No," said the Captain; "and I couldn't blame 'em. They only wanted to keep me up to my bargain. I'd made it, and they meant I should stick to it; and havin' promised 'em broilers, they wasn't under any obligations to take boiled fish. The worst part of it is I've got 'em all on my hands, and instead o' havin' the cash to buy tenderloin steaks and pie and apple-sauce with, I'll have to eat boiled blue-fish instead for the next ten days; and boiled blue-fish gives me the most depressed feelin's you ever saw."

With which sorrowful statement the good old fellow rose up and walked away, leaving the boys not only sorry for him, but sorry for themselves as well; for when they realized how awfully hot it must be out upon the sea to boil the fish in the water itself, somehow or other it seemed to grow a great deal hotter there upon the beach.