第5章 The Old Man and the Big Fish[第4页/共15页]

“He's headed north,”the old man said.The current will have set us far to the eastward,he thought.I wish he would turn with the current.That would show that he was tiring.

“Be patient,hand,”he said“, I do this for you.”

Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged , for more than a minute watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved.

The sun was hot now although the breeze was rising gently.

Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman,he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for. I must surely remember to eat the tuna after it gets light.

You did not stay long,the man thought.But it is rougher where you are going until you make the shore.How did I let the fish cut me with that one quick pull he made?I must be getting very stupid.Or perhaps I was looking at the small bird and thinking of him.Now I will pay attention to my work and then I must eat the tuna so that I will not have a failure of strength.