"It's French," said Darbishire when he saw the name of the boat.
Five Frenchmen sat on deck mending their nets. The boys stood looking at them for a long time. At last Darbishire said: "Why are we standing and looking at them? Let's go and ask permission to take a photo of them. My father says you must strike while the iron is hot."
"All right, let's go," said Jennings. And they went to the fishing boat.
"Excuse me," said Jennings when they came up to the boat.
There was no answer from the boat. Five pairs of hands were working quickly.
"Excuse me," repeated Jennings loudly.
The hands stopped working and the five fishermen turned their heads towards the boys.
"My friend and I want to ask permission to come on deck and take some photos of you for our newspaper," said Jennings.
No answer. The fishermen looked at the boys with surprise.
"What I mean is there will be a wonderful picture of you mending your nets."
"Comment?" said one of the fishermen.
"What did he say?" asked Darbishire.
"I don't know. Something like 'come on'."
"No," he said, 'comment' means, 'how many', or 'what' or something else in French."
"I will tell him that I want to take only one photo," Jennings said to Darbishire. And he said loudly, "I want only one photo."
But the fishermen did not understand Jennings.
"Comment?" another fisherman asked.
"It can't mean 'how many'. I've told him that I wanted to take only one photo and now he has asked again. Maybe he means 'come on'. Let's go," Jennings said to Darbishire.
Soon the boys were on deck. The fishermen smiled at their visitors, but did not say a word because they did not speak English.
"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.