"The Trick River keeps changing, it seems, and here we must float back and forward forever, unless we manage in some way to get ashore." "Can you swim ?" asked Dorothy.
"No; I'm Ojo the Unlucky." "Neither can I.Toto can swim a little, but that won't help us to get to shore." "I don't know whether I could swim, or not," remarked Scraps; "but if I tried it I'd surely ruin my lovely patches." "My straw would get soggy in the water and I would sink," said the Scarecrow.
So there seemed no way out of their dilemma and being helpless they simply sat still.

Ojo, who was on the front of the raft, looked over into the water and thought he saw some large fishes swimming about.

He found a loose end of the clothesline which fastened the logs together, and taking a gold nail from his pocket he bent it nearly double, to form a hook, and tied it to the end of the line.

Having baited the hook with some bread which he broke from his loaf, he dropped the line into the water and almost instantly it was seized by a great fish.
They knew it was a great fish, because it pulled so hard on the line that it dragged the raft forward even faster than the current of the river had carried it.

The fish was frightened, and it was a strong swimmer.