'Little Fish'

A boy observes his father, a schoolteacher, normally a man 'glaring, snapping, terrifying everyone in spasms of half-theatrical anger' become in the presence of a school administrator furtive and apprehensive, 'filled with an increasing and almost pathetic desire to be noticed, to attract the attention of the big man in the corner'.

Reflective of Bates's negative experiences of education and of certain male teachers, this tale shares certain characteristics with Jonah and Bruno as well as with Bates's many coming-of-age stories.

In John O'London's Weekly (March 2, 1935), The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, November 12, 1935, p. 24, with the title 'Some Little Fish'), Cut and Come Again (1935), Country Tales (1938), Country Tales (1940).