A Gutsy Guy Gets Great, Giant Tuna, Wins Contest;
Freddie put the baloney in a skillet, poured on the sauce, and barbecued it. Oh! It smelled so good, but the starving boy took not one bite and crawled into bed, hungrier than he had ever been. Arriving at the tournament the next morning, Freddie saw Fabian “Fat Cat” Finnegan, the rich kid, in his huge fishing yacht. Fat Cat’s father, Felix Finnegan, owned more land than anyone else, including the field where Freddie and his mama lived.
When Fat Cat saw Freddie shove his boat in the water, he asked, “Are you really entering this tournament with nothing but that little boat and a cane pole?” Ignoring him, Freddie paddled toward Dead Man’s Cove. The sun had not risen, and the weather was chilly. Suddenly, Fat Cat sped by, and his yacht’s wave flipped the little boat. As Freddie gasped to the surface, he heard Fat Cat laughing. Shivering cold, he crawled back into the boat and resumed paddling.
When Freddie reached Dead Man’s Cove, he baited the hook and lowered the barbecued baloney into the water. The sun finally rose, and feeling its comforting warmth, Freddie fell fast asleep. As he dozed, he dreamed two-ton Tommy surfaced right beside him. Upon awakening, the nightmare became a reality when the monster fish, mere inches from the boat, glared at him. Then the evil-eyed tuna warned, “I’m going to take your bait, and if you try to stop me, I will drag you to the bottom of the sea as I did Fish-Eyes.”
When Tommy gulped the bait, Freddie grabbed the pole, and the fight began. Because the tuna was so strong, he jerked Freddie right out of the boat and made a dive straight for the bottom. Struggling to hold on to the pole, Freddie almost drowned.
Then Tommy swam straight up and jumped high into the air with Freddie trailing behind him, holding on with all his might, taking big gulps of air before each dive. Tommy kept diving and jumping until Freddie was about to give up, but thinking of his poor, sick mama, he held the pole tightly.
Then Freddie noticed that Tommy was slowing down. He was getting tired! The next time they came to the surface, Freddie jumped in his boat, tied Tommy to the back of it, and paddled as fast as he could for shore. He made it! People were shouting, “Hooray, hooray, for Freddie.” About that time, Fat Cat roared up and shouted to the judges, “Look! I caught a 500-pound saber-snouted silver-skinned shark. I’ve won the prize!”
Sneering at Freddie, he burst out laughing and asked, “Hey, Freddie, what did you catch? A minnow?” Then he gasped as he saw Freddie’s catch being hoisted out of the water. All eyes were on the scales: one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred--all the way up to one thousand pounds. Such a huge fish could only have been caught by one kind of contestant: a fantastic fisherman.
Read next: A Fantastic Fisherman, Part 3 of 3
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