"No, not yet. I'm going to set my Alice-doll up where she can watch me.

She never saw anybody catch a fish--my Alice-doll didn't." And Dot propped her "child" up near her, on the deck of the craft.

Suddenly Hank pulled his pole up sharply.

"I got one!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, I wish I'd get one!" echoed Tess.

"Let me see!" fairly shouted Dot. "Let me see the fish, Hank!" She struggled to her feet, and the next moment a wild cry rang out.

"She's fallen in! Oh, she's fallen in! Oh, get her out!"

CHAPTER XII

NEALE WONDERS

Dot's startled cries roused all on board the _Bluebird_. Neale and Mr.

Howbridge dropped the cot they were setting in place under the awning, and rushed to the railing of the deck. Inside the boat Ruth, Agnes and Mrs. MacCall hurried to windows where they could look out toward the stern where the fishing party had seated themselves.

"Man overboard!" sang out Neale, hardly thinking what he was doing.

But, to the surprise of all the startled ones, they saw at the stern of the boat, Hank, Dot and Tess, and from Hank's line was dangling a wiggling fish.

But Dot was pointing to something in the water.

"Why!" exclaimed Ruth, "no one has fallen in. What can the child mean?"

"She said--" began Agnes, but she was interrupted by Dot who exclaimed:

"It's my Alice-doll! She fell in when I got up to look at Hank's fish!

Oh, somebody please get my Alice-doll!"

"I will in jest a minute now, little lady!" cried the mule driver. "It's bad luck to let your first fish git away. Jest a minute now, and I'll save your Alice-doll!"

Neale and Mr. Howbridge hurried down to the lower deck from the top one in time to see Hank take his fish from the hook and toss it into a pail of water the mule driver had placed near by for just this purpose. Then as Hank took off his coat and seemed about to plunge overboard into the ca.n.a.l, to rescue the doll, Ruth said:

"Don't let him, Mr. Howbridge. Dot's doll isn't worth having him risk his life for."

"Risking my life, Miss Kenway! It wouldn't be that," said Hank, with a laugh. "I can swim, and I'd just like a bath."

"Here's a boat hook," said Neale, offering one, and while Dot and Tess clung to one another Hank managed to fish up the "Alice-doll," Dot's special prize, which was, fortunately, floating alongside the houseboat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: While Dot and Tess clung to one another, Hank managed to fish up the "Alice-doll."]

"There you are, little lady!" exclaimed the driver, and he began to squeeze some of the water from Alice.

"Oh, please don't!" begged Dot.

"Don't what?" asked Hank.

"Please don't choke her that way. All her sawdust might come out. It did once. I'll just hang her up to dry. Poor Alice-doll!" murmured the little girl, as she clasped her toy in her arms.

"Were you almost drowned?" and she cuddled her doll still closer in her arms.

"Don't hold her so close to you, Dot," cautioned Ruth. "She'll get you soaking wet."

"I don't care!" muttered Dot. "I've got to put dry clothes on her so she won't catch cold."

"And that's just what I don't want to have to do for you--change your clothes again to-day," went on Ruth. "You can love your doll even if you don't hold her so close."

"Well, anyhow I'm glad she didn't drown," said Dot.

"So'm I," remarked Tess. "I'll go and help you change her. I'm glad we didn't bring Almira and her kittens along, for they look so terrible when they're wet--cats do."

"And I'm glad we didn't have Sammy and Billy b.u.mps here to fall in!"

laughed Agnes. "Goats are even worse in the water than cats."

"Well, aren't you going to help me fish any more?" asked Hank, as the two little girls walked away, deserting their poles and lines.

"I have to take care of my Alice-doll," declared Dot.

"And I have to help her," said Tess.

"I'll take a hand at fishing, if you don't mind," said Neale.

"And I wouldn't mind trying myself," added the lawyer. And when Hank's sleeping quarters had been arranged the three men, though perhaps Neale could hardly be called that, sat together at the stern of the boat, their lines in the water.

"Mr. Howbridge is almost like a boy himself on this trip, isn't he?"

said Agnes to Ruth as the two sisters helped Mrs. MacCall make up the berths for the night.

"Yes, he is, and I'm glad of it. I wouldn't know what to do if some grave, tiresome old man had charge of our affairs."

"Well now, who is going to have first luck?" questioned Mr. Howbridge, jokingly, as the three sat down to try their hands at fishing.

"I guess the luck will go to the first one who gets a catch," returned Neale.

"Luck goes to the one who gits the biggest fish," put in the mule driver.

After that there was silence for a few minutes. Then the lawyer gave a cry of satisfaction.

"Got a bite?" questioned Hank.

"I have and he's a beauty," was the reply, and Mr. Howbridge drew up a fair-sized fish.