t as getting into the afternoon and the boat still moved sloly an there as an added drag no from the easterly breeze and the old man rode gently ith the small sea and the hurt of the cord across his back came to him easily an in the afternoon the line started to ris the fish only continued to sim at a slightly highe sun as on the old man's left arm and shoulder and on hi he kne the fish had turned east o that he had seen him once,he could icture the fish simming in the ater ith his urle ectoral fins set ide as ings and the great erect tail slicing through th ho much he sees at that deth,the old ma eye is huge and a horse,ith much less eye,can see in th could see quite ell in th in the absolut almost as a ca sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramed his left hand no comletely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little.

“f you're not tired,fish,”he said aloud,“you must be very strange.”

e felt very tired no and he kne the night ould come soon and he tried to think of othe thought of the ig eagues,to him they ere the ran igas,and he kne that the ankees of e ork ere laying the igres o is the second day no that do not kno the result of the juegos,h must have confidence and must be orthy of the great iaggio ho does all things erfectly even ith the ain of the bone sur in hi is a bone sur?

e aske esuela d do not hav it be as ainful as the sur of a fighting cock in one's heel?

do not think could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks do.

an is not much beside the great birds an ould rather be that beast don there in the darkness of the sea.

“nless sharks come,”he said aloud.

“f sharks come, od ity him and me.”

o you believe the great iaggio ould stay ith a fish as long as ill stay ith this one?

sure he ould and more since he is young an his father as ould the bone sur hurt him too much?

“ do not kno,”he said aloud.

“ never had a bone sur.”

s the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence,the time in the tavern at asablanca hen he had layed the hand game ith the great negro from ienfuegos ho as the strongest man on th had gone one day and one night ith their elbos on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight u and their hands grie one as trying to force the other's hand don onto th as much betting and eole ent in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro' changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees coul came out from under the fingernails of both his and the negro's hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors ent in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the all an alls ere ainted bright blue and ere of ood and the lams thre their shados agains negro's shado as huge and it moved on the all as the breeze moved th odds ould change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes fo the egro,after the rum,ould try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, ho as not an old man then but as antiago l ameon,nearly three inches of the old man had raised his hand u to dead eve as sure then that he had the negro,ho as a fine man and a great athlete, at daylight hen the bettors ere asking that it be called a dra and the referee as shaking his head,he had unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro don and don until it rested on th match had started on a unday morning and ended on a onda of the bettors had asked for a dra because they had to go to ork on the docks loading sacks of sugar or at the avana oa everyone ould have anted it to go to he had finished it anyay and before anyone had to go t a long time after that everyone had called him he hamion and there had been a return match in th not much money as bet and he had on it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from ienfuegos in the firs that he had a fe matches and then n decided that he could beat anyone if he anted to badly enough and he decided that it as bad for his right hand fo had tried a fe ractice matches ith his lef his left hand had alays been a traitor and ould not do hat he called on it to do and he did not trust it.

he sun ill bake it out ell no,h should not cram on me again unless it gets too cold in th hat this night il airlane assed overhead on its course to iami and he atched its shado scaring u the schools of flying fish.

“ith so much flying fish there should be dolhin,”he said,and leaned back on the line to see if it as ossible to gain any on hi he could not and it stayed at the hardness and aterdro shivering that recede boat moved ahead sloly and he atched the airlane until he could no longer see it.

t must be very strange in an airlane, h hat the sea looks like from that height?

hey should be able to see the fish ell if they do not fly to like to fly very sloly at to hundred fathoms high and see the fish fro the turtle boats as in the cross-trees of the mast-head and even at that height sa dolhin look greener from there and you can see their stries and their urle sots and you can see all of the school as the is it that all the fast-moving fish of the dark current have urle backs and usually urle stries or sots?

he dolhin looks green of course because he is reall hen he comes to feed,truly hungry,urle stries sho on his sides as on it be anger,or the greater seed he makes that brings them out?

ust before it as dark, as they assed a great island of argasso eed that heaved and sung in the light sea as though the ocean ere making love ith something under a yello blanket,his small line as taken by sa it first hen it jumed in the air,true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flaing ildly in th jumed again and again in the acrobatics of its fear and he orked his ay back to the stern and crouching and holding the big line ith his right hand and arm,he ulled the dolhin in ith his left hand,steing on the gained line each time ith his bare lef the fish as at the stern,lunging and cutting from side to side in deseration,the old man leaned over the stern and lifted the burnished gold fish ith its urle sots over th jas ere orking convulsively in quick bites against the hook and it ounded the bottom of the skiff ith its long flat body,its tail and its head until he clubbed it across the shining golden head until it shivered and a old man unhooked the fish,rebaited the line ith another sardine and tossed i he orked his ay sloly back to th ashed his left hand and ied it on hi he shifted the heavy line from his right hand to his left and ashed his right hand in the sea hile he atched the sun go into the ocean and the slant of the big cord.

“e hasn't changed at all,”h atching the movement of the ater against his hand he noticed that it as ercetibly sloer.

“'ll lash the to oars together across the stern and that ill slo him in the night,”he said.

“ e's good for the night and so am .”

t ould be better to gut the dolhin a little later to save the blood in the meat,h do that a little later and lash the oars to make a drag at the sam better kee the fish quiet no and not disturb him too much a setting of the sun is a difficult time for al let his hand dry in the air then grased the line ith it and eased himself as much as he could and alloed himself to be ulled forard against the ood so that the boat took the strain as much,or more,than h'm learning ho to do it,h art of i too,remember he hasn't eaten since he took the bait and he is huge and needs muc eaten the hol ill eat th called i should eat some of it hen clean it.

t ill be harder to eat than th,then,nothing is easy.

“o do you feel,fish?”he asked aloud.

“ feel good and my left hand is better and have food for a night and the boat,fish.”

e did not truly feel good because the ain from the cord across his back had almost assed ain and gone into a dullness that h have had orse things than that,h hand is only cut a little and the cram is gone from th legs are al no have gained on him in the question o as dark no as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets i lay against the orn ood of the bo and rested all that h first stars er did not kno the name of igel but he sa it and kne soon they ould all be out and he ould have all his distant friends.

“he fish is my friend too,”he said aloud.

“ have never seen or heard of such must kil glad e do not have to try to kill the stars.”

magine if each day a man must try to kill the moon,h moon run imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun?

e ere born lucky,h he as sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorro fo many eole ill he feed,h are they orthy to eat him?

o,of cours is no one orthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his grea not understand these things,h it is good that e do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or th is enough to live on the sea and kill our tru,he thought, must think about th has its erils and it lose so much line that ill lose him,if he makes his effort and the drag made by the oars is in lace and the boat loses all he lightness rolongs both our suffering but it is my safety since he has great seed that he has never ye matter hat asses must gut the dolhin so he does not soil and eat some of him to b ill rest an hour more and feel that he is solid and steady before move back to the stern to do the ork and make th the meantime can see ho he acts and if he shos an oars are a good trick;but it has reached the time to lay fo is much fish still and sa that the hook as in the corner of his mouth and he has ket his mouth tigh unishment of the hook i unishment of hunger,and that he is against something that he does not comrehend,i no,old man,and let him ork until your next dut rested for hat he believed to be t moon did not rise no until late and he had no ay of judging th as he really resting exce as still bearing the ull of the fish across his shoulders but he laced his left hand on the gunale of the bo and confided more and more of the resistance to the fish to the skif simle it ould be if could make the line fast,h ith one small lurch he could break it.

must cushion the ull of the line ith my body and at all times be ready to give line ith both hands.

“ut you have not slet yet,old man,”he said aloud.

“ t is half a day and a night and no another day and you have no must devise a ay so that you slee a little if he is quiet an you do not slee you might become unclear in the head.”

'm clear enough in the head,h as clear as the stars that are m mus slee and the moon and the sun slee and even the ocean slees sometimes on certain days hen there is no current and a fla remember to slee,h yourself do it and devise some simle and sure ay about th go back and reare th is too dangerous to rig the oars as a drag if you mus go ithout sleeing,he tol it ould be to started to ork his ay back to the stern on his hands and knees,being careful not to jerk against th may be half aslee himself,h do not ant him t must ull until h in the stern he turned so that his left hand held the strain of the line across his shoulders and dre his knife from its sheath ith his righ stars ere bright no and he sa the dolhin clearly and he ushed the blade of his knife into his head and dre him out from under th ut one of his feet on the fish and slit him quickly from the vent u to the ti of his loe he ut his knife don and gutted him ith his right hand,scooing him clean and ulling the gill felt the ma heavy and sliery in his hands and he slit i ere to flying fis ere fresh and hard and he laid them side by side and droed the guts and the gills over th sank leaving a trail of hoshorescence in th dolhin as cold and a lerous gray-hite no in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him hile he held his right foot on the fish' he turned him over and skinned the other side and cut each side off from the head don to th slid the carcass overboard and looked to see if there as any sirl in th there as only the light of its slo turned then and laced the to flying fish inside the to fillets of fish and utting his knife back in its sheath,he orked his ay sloly back to th back as bent ith the eight of the line across it and he carried the fish in his righ in the bo he laid the to fillets of fish out on the ood ith the flying fish besid that he settled the line across his shoulders in a ne lace and held it again ith his left hand resting on th he leaned over the side and ashed the flying fish in the ater,noting the seed of the ater against hi hand as hoshorescent from skinning the fish and he atched the flo of the ater against it.

he flo as less strong and as he rubbed the sides of his hand against the lanking of the skiff,articles of hoshorus floated off and drifted sloly astern.

“e is tiring or he is resting,”the old man said.

“o let me get through the eating of this dolhin and get some rest and a little slee.”

nder the stars and ith the night colder all the time he ate half of one of the dolhin fillets and one of the flying fish, gutted and ith its head cut off.

“hat an excellent fish dolhin is to eat cooked,”he said.

“nd hat a miserable fis never go in a boat again ithout salt or limes.”

f had brains ould have slashed ater on the bo all day and drying,it ould have made salt,h then did not hook the dolhin until almos it as a lack o have cheed it all ell and am no sky as clouding over to the east and one after another the stars he kne er looked no as though he ere moving into a great canyon of clouds and the ind had droed.
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