So down he climbed and into the water he waded. Soon Bob and Roy heard
him call, "Oh, Oh, Oh, come quick!"

"What is it?" called Bob. "Have you caught a big crab?"

"Oh, no," said Paul. He was half laughing and half crying, and all the
time he was shaking his foot as hard as he could. "Oh, no, I haven't
caught a crab. A--crab--has--caught me!" And sure enough, a big fat crab
had nipped Paul's toe and was holding it fast.

Bob climbed down and pulled it off. Paul went home and tied up his sore
toe. Then he came back and sat on the wharf and watched the others.
Somehow, he didn't feel like catching crabs. So he pretended he was a
sailor who had been bitten by a big shark.

One day Bob and Paul found a very nice bottle on the beach. It had a
tight cork so that the water could not soak in. At first they thought
they would hide it in their treasure cave. But that didn't seem exciting
enough. So they thought and thought what to do with it. At last Bob
said, "I know! Let's write our names and where we live on a piece of
paper and put it in the bottle. Then let's throw the bottle out to sea."
So he wrote:

+----------------------+
| Bob Johnson |
| Paul Ray |
| Fairport, Maine |
+----------------------+

They put the paper in the bottle and corked the bottle tightly. Then