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Then too, remember he hasn't eaten since he took the bait and he is huge and needs much food.

I have eaten the whole bonito.

Tomorrow I will eat the dolphin.

He called it dorado.

Perhaps I should eat some of it when I clean it.

It will be harder to eat than the bonito.

But, then, nothing is easy.

"How do you feel, fish?" he asked aloud. "I feel good and my left hand is better and I have food for a night and a day. Pull the boat, fish."

He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and gone into a dullness that he mistrusted.

But I have had worse things than that, he thought.

My hand is only cut a little and the cramp is gone from the other.

My legs are all right.

Also now I have gained on him in the question of sustenance.

It was dark now as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets in September. He lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he could. The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends.

"The fish is my friend too," he said aloud. "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars."

Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought.

Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him.

How many people will he feed, he thought.

But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course not.

There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity.

I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.

Now, he thought, I must think about the drag.

It has its perils and its merits.

I may lose so much line that I will lose him, if he makes his effort and the drag made by the oars is in place and the boat loses all her lightness.

Her lightness prolongs both our suffering but it is my safety since he has great speed that he has never yet employed.

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