Fishin Jimmy | Page 5

the rest on it into talk very good;
't aint jest the kind o' thing to speak on 'fore folks, even sech good
friends as you. I aint the sort to go back on my word,--fishermen aint,
ye know,--an' what I 'd said to myself 'fore I knowed who I was bindin'
myself to, I stuck to a'terwards when I knowed all about him. For 't aint
for me to tell ye, who've got so much more larnin' than me, that there
was a dreffle lot more to that story than the fishin' part. That lovin',
givin' up, suff'rin', dyin' part, ye know it all yerself, an' I can't kinder
say much on it, 'cept when I 'm jest all by myself, or--'long o' him.
"That a'ternoon I took my ole Bible that I had n't read much sence I
growed up, an' I went out into the woods 'long the river, an' 'stid o'
fishin' I jest sot down an' read that hull story. Now ye know it yerself
by heart, an' ye 've knowed it all yer born days, so ye can't begin to tell
how new an' 'stonishin' 't was to me, an' how findin' so much fishin' in
it kinder helped me unnerstan' an' b'l'eve it every mite, an' take it right
hum to me to foller an' live up to 's long 's I live an' breathe. Did j'ever
think on it, reely? I tell ye, his r'liging 's a fishin' r'liging all through.
His friends was fishin' folks; his pulpit was a fishin' boat, or the shore o'
the lake; he loved the ponds an' streams; an' when his d'sciples went out
fishin', if he did n't go hisself with 'em, he 'd go a'ter 'em, walkin' on the
water, to cheer 'em up an' comfort 'em.

"An' he was allers 'round the water; for the story 'll say, 'he come to the
seashore,' or 'he begun to teach by the seaside,' or agin, 'he entered into
a boat,' an' 'he was in the stern o' the boat, asleep.'
"An' he used fish in his mir'cles. He fed that crowd o' folks on fish
when they was hungry, bought 'em from a little chap on the shore. I 've
oft'n thought how dreffle tickled that boy must 'a' ben to have him take
them fish. Mebbe they wa'n't nothin' but shiners, but the fust the little
feller 'd ever ketched; an' boys set a heap on their fust ketch. He was
dreffle good to child'en, ye know. An' who 'd he come to a'ter he 'd died,
an' ris agin? Why, he come down to the shore 'fore daylight, an' looked
off over the pond to where his ole frien's was a-fishin'. Ye see they 'd
gone out jest to quiet their minds an' keep up their sperrits; ther 's
nothin' like fishin' for that, ye know, an' they 'd ben in a heap o' trubble.
When they was settin' up the night afore, worryin' an' wond'rin' an'
s'misin' what was goin' ter become on 'em without their master; Peter 'd
got kinder desprit, an' he up an' says in his quick way, says he, 'Anyway,
I 'm goin' a-fishin'.' An' they all see the sense on it,--any fisherman
would,--an' they says, says they, 'We '11 go 'long too.' But they did n't
ketch anythin'. I suppose they could n't fix their minds on it, an'
everythin' went wrong like. But when mornin' come creepin' up over
the mountings, fust thin' they knowed they see him on the bank, an' he
called out to 'em to know if they'd ketched anythin'. The water jest run
down my cheeks when I heerd the min'r ster tell that, an' it kinder
makes my eyes wet every time I think on 't. For 't seems 's if it might 'a'
ben me in that boat, who heern that v'ice I loved so dreffle well speak
up agin so nat'ral from the bank there. An' he eat some o' their fish! O'
course he done it to sot their minds easy, to show 'em he wa'n't quite a
sperrit yit, but jest their own ole frien' who 'd ben out in the boat with
'em so many, many times. But seems to me, jest the fac' he done it
kinder makes fish an' fishin' diffunt from any other thing in the hull
airth. I tell ye them four books that gin his story is chock full o' things
that go right to the heart o' fishermen,--nets, an' hooks, an' boats, an' the
shores, an' the sea, an' the mountings, Peter's fishin'-coat, lilies, an'
sparrers, an' grass o' the fields, an' all about the evenin' sky bein' red or
lowerin', an' fair or foul weather.

"It 's an out-doors, woodsy, country