“No,I will eat at home.Do you want me to make the fire?”

“I can order one.”

“May I take the cast net?”

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

“I'll try to get him to work far out,”the boy said.“ Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid.”

“It was papa made me leave.I am a boy and I must obey him.”

“Can you really remember that or did I just tell it to you?”

“One,”the old man said.His hope and his confidence had never gone.But now they were freshening as when the breeze rises.

“A pot of yellow rice with fish.Do you want some?”

“Where are you going?”the boy asked.

“Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow?”“No.Go and play baseball.I can still row and Rogelio will throw the net.”

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

“Far out to come in when the wind shifts.I want to be out before it is light.”

“You study it and tell me when I come back.”

“But you went turtle-ing for years off the Mosquito Coast and your eyes are good.

The boy left him there and when he came back the old man was still asleep.

“May I get the sardines?I know where I can get four baits too.”