'Good afternoon, it's very nice to be here,' said Jennings.
'Comment?' asked the third fisherman.
'We can't come on. We are already here,' said Jennings.
'They don't understand English' said Darbishire.
The fishermen began to speak French, and then one of them said something in French to Darbishire.
'Maybe he says that they don't speak English and that you must talk to them in French if you want to take a photo,' said Darbishire.
'Me talk to hem in French? But you are one of the best pupils in the French class. Ask them if we can take their photo,' said Jennings.
'I can't. I don't remember the words.'
'Please, Darbi, say something.'
Darbishire thought and said what he could.
'Attention, mes braves! Nous voulons du poisson... No, no! What I mean is...'
But the fishermen began to smile: they understood at last! They turned and hurried below deck.
Jennings looked at them in surprise: 'Where are they all hurrying to?'
'Well.. you see...' began Darbishire, ' I think I've made a mistake. I didn't remember the French for 'fisherman' and said 'poisson' which means 'fish''
'Do you mean you called them 'fish', and they got angry and ran from the deck?'
'No, I think I said we want some fish.'
'How could you say that?'
Darbishire did not answer.
'Never mind,' said Jennings. 'I've taken a good photo of them. They don't know I took it because they were talking to you.'
'That's good. Let's go home then. I'm happy it's all over.'
But when they turned to go they saw the five fishermen again. They were coming on deck with fish in their hands.
'Thank you very much,' said Jennings, 'but...'
'C'est pour votre maman,' said one of the Frenchmen.
Darbishire understood. 'He says that we must take the fish home to our mothers,' he said.
'Tell him we don't have mothers at boarding school. Thank them and tell them we don't want any fish,' said Jennings.
'I can't. There are too many words there that I don't know. Let's take the fish and go.'
'But we don't want it. What can we do with it?'
'We must take the fish. It is a present. The fisherman think we have come here only for fish. They are happy to give it to us. They will not like it if we don't take the fish.'
'All right,' said Jennings and took the fish from one of the Frenchmen. Then the others hurried to the boys and gave them the fish they had in their hands.
After that one of the fisherman took a newspaper out of his pocket and made up a big parcel of the fish. Yes, the men from 'Sainte Marie' were very kind people.
Chapter Four
Jennings and Darbishire meet Mr Carter.
'We can't take the parcel to school,' Jennings said when the boys left the fishing boat
'Why not? There is no rule about it, is there?' said Darbishire.
'There must be. I think Matron will get angry if we came to tea with the fish. And if there isn't a rule, there soon will be one. Rule number nine hundred and ninety-nine: Any boy who comes to boarding school with a parcel of fish shall stay in class during football.'
'Well, let's leave it somewhere before we come to school.'
But this was not so easy. There were no trees or bushes on their way to school, and an old woman with a dog was walking behind them.
'We can't leave it here,' decided Jennings. 'Well, what shall we do with it?... I'll tell you what, Darbi. We'll take it to school and put it in my tuck-box.'
'Yes,' said Darbishire, 'and then we can take it home to our mothers when we go on holidays.' Jennings looked at his friend angrily:
'Sometimes you don't think before you speak.'
'I see what you mean. But then why take it with us?'
'To eat, of course.'
'What - raw! Thank you, Jen. I'm not a cat.'
'I'm not going to eat it raw. I'm not a cat either. What we'll do is this. We'll get up early tomorrow and develop our film in the school dark room. There is a gas-cooker there and we'll fry a nice fish breakfast.'
'What shall we fry it in?'
'In developing dishes, of course.'
'Where can we get butter?'
'I'll think about that,' said Jennings.
Darbishire thought it was a good plan: teachers do not come into the dark room when pupils develop the film there.
When the boys were near the school Jennings sent Darbishire to see if there was anybody near the building. Jennings put the parcel on the ground. At that moment Darbishire ran back.
'Mr Carter,' he said. 'He's coming here.'
Jennings wanted to put the parcel quickly under his raincoat. But when he took it from the ground the newspaper dissolved into pulp and the fish fell on the ground. For a moment Jennings did not know what to do. Then, quickly, he began to put the fish into his raincoat pockets.
'Don't stand there, Darbi! Do something!' said Jennings.
Darbishire began to put the fish in his pockets too. Jennings had soon found a place of all except one.
At that moment he saw Mr Carter. Jennings took of his cap, put the last fish in it, and put the cap on quickly.
Mr Carter was a very kind and cleaver man, and all the boys in the boarding school liked him.
'Good afternoon, sir, ' said Darbishire and took of his cap.
Jennings looked at him angrily. 'Why did he do that. He knows well that I can't take of my cap,' he thought.
'Good afternoon. You've come back early,' said Mr Carter. 'Did you have a good walk?'
'Yes, thank you, sir. We went to the harbour,' said Jennings. ' I took very good photos of a fishing boat and some fishermen.'
At that moment Darbishire saw that Mr Carter was looking at Jennings' cap.
'They were Frenchmen, sir,' said Darbishire. 'And I had a little talk with them.'
'Yes, sir,' said Jennings, 'they were Frenchmen and Darbishire called them 'fish'.'
'Oh, sir, I didn't call them that, sir! Jennings doesn't know French well and he couldn't understand what I said to them.'
'And could the Frenchmen?' asked Mr Carter.
'Yes and no, sir,' said Darbishire.
'Well, the first thing which you two boys can do, is to go and take the fish out of your pockets.'
So Mr Carter knew about the fish!
Mr Carter turned to Jennings.
'Fish may be good for the brain, but not when you put them in the head under your cap.'
'I'm sorry, ' said Jennings. 'They are a present. We didn't want to take them but we didn't know how to say it
