We Kept Falling Behind, But
The Fish Kept His Back Well Out, And Did Not Dive, And Seemed To
Prefer To Swim Against The Stream, So, At Any Rate, He Would Not
Escape Us By Going Out To Sea.
At length, having got as near as
was convenient, and looking out not to get a blow from his tail,
now the bow-gunner delivered his charge, while the stern-man held
his ground.
But the halibut-skinned monster, in one of these
swift-gliding pregnant moments, without ever ceasing his bobbing
up and down, saw fit, without a chuckle or other prelude, to
proclaim himself a huge imprisoned spar, placed there as a buoy,
to warn sailors of sunken rocks. So, each casting some blame
upon the other, we withdrew quickly to safer waters.
The Scene-shifter saw fit here to close the drama, of this day,
without regard to any unities which we mortals prize. Whether it
might have proved tragedy, or comedy, or tragi-comedy, or
pastoral, we cannot tell. This Sunday ended by the going down of
the sun, leaving us still on the waves. But they who are on the
water enjoy a longer and brighter twilight than they who are on
the land, for here the water, as well as the atmosphere, absorbs
and reflects the light, and some of the day seems to have sunk
down into the waves. The light gradually forsook the deep water,
as well as the deeper air, and the gloaming came to the fishes as
well as to us, and more dim and gloomy to them, whose day is a
perpetual twilight, though sufficiently bright for their weak and
watery eyes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 117 of 422
Words from 32382 to 32663
of 116321
