She only stayed a little while.”
“That’s too bad. Was it because she didn’t learn anything?”
“So far as I could judge, she learned practically nothing at all. In her case, I was an utter failure as a teacher.”
“Perhaps she found you a distracting influence. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on history when your glands are kicking up a fuss, you know.”
“Yes, I do know. There is probably no one in the world who knows it any better.”
“But I wouldn’t feel too bad about your failure, old boy. You may not have been able to teach her anything, but I’m positive something was accomplished the other way round, and it is my opinion based on observation that she has taught you plenty.”
“I concede that and merely wish to qualify it by saying that I would certainly be better off if I’d never learned it.”
“It hurts me to see you so bitter.”
“All right, Harvey. And now I believe I would like to go to sleep.”
“Immediately?”
“As quickly as possible,” I said.
“Shall we run the line at midnight?”
“Yes.”
“Will you wake up, do you think?”
“I’m certain to wake up. I always wake up at midnight when we are out here. It’s a habit.”
“That’s good, then. Just give me a shake, will you?”
“All right.”
“I’ll be very grateful,” Harvey said.
“It’s all right, Harvey. I’ll be glad to give you a shake.”
“Goodnight, then, old boy.”
“Goodnight.”
He rolled over on his side with his back to me, and after a while I could hear him breathing deeply and evenly in sleep, and I continued to lie awake on my back, hearing besides his breathing the sounds of the river and the trees and all the other sounds that occurred in the night. Finally I went to sleep, and a long time after that I woke up again, and sure enough, it was then just a few minutes after midnight by my watch. I shook Harvey awake, and we went down to the river and ran the line and took off four fat bullheads and a carp. We put the fish on a stringer and went back and lay down on our blankets again, and Harvey went right off to sleep, but I didn’t. I started thinking about Jolly and told myself that I had better quit, but I didn’t do that, either. The river kept running, and the trees kept stirring, and I kept thinking. The last time I looked at my watch before sleeping, it was three o’clock.
7
The next morning we ran the line again and had breakfast, and after breakfast I took a rod down to the gravel bar and started casting for channel cats, but I didn’t have any luck. I enjoyed it down there, though, between the high banks with the water running swiftly through the narrow channel between the bar and the bank opposite, and I stayed on in spite of having no luck, and I was still down there casting when I heard a car come along the narrow dirt road from the highway and stop beside the cabin up on the bank behind me. It was then, I guess, about the middle of the morning.
I could hear Harvey’s voice sounding surprised and a little excited, and Fran Tyler’s voice saying something shrilly in response to Harvey’s voice, and I brought in my line and cast it upstream again and watched it float down past me with the current, and someone came to the edge of the bank at my back and down the path with a slithering of dirt and a small rattling of dislodged stones. I knew it was Jolly because I could feel her and smell her, and the feeling was quite disturbing to my equanimity, and I understood that whatever developed in the fishing from this time on, the peace and comfort of it were gone.
“Hello, Felix,” Jolly said.
“We just said goodbye,” I said.
“That was yesterday. Eons ago.”
“It was supposed to be for eons. It was supposed to be forever.”
“Forever is such a long time. Don’t you find it so?”
“What do you want, Jolly?”
“I guess what I want is you. That seems to be the simple truth of it, and it is constantly making me humble myself.”
“I
“That’s too bad. Was it because she didn’t learn anything?”
“So far as I could judge, she learned practically nothing at all. In her case, I was an utter failure as a teacher.”
“Perhaps she found you a distracting influence. It’s pretty hard to concentrate on history when your glands are kicking up a fuss, you know.”
“Yes, I do know. There is probably no one in the world who knows it any better.”
“But I wouldn’t feel too bad about your failure, old boy. You may not have been able to teach her anything, but I’m positive something was accomplished the other way round, and it is my opinion based on observation that she has taught you plenty.”
“I concede that and merely wish to qualify it by saying that I would certainly be better off if I’d never learned it.”
“It hurts me to see you so bitter.”
“All right, Harvey. And now I believe I would like to go to sleep.”
“Immediately?”
“As quickly as possible,” I said.
“Shall we run the line at midnight?”
“Yes.”
“Will you wake up, do you think?”
“I’m certain to wake up. I always wake up at midnight when we are out here. It’s a habit.”
“That’s good, then. Just give me a shake, will you?”
“All right.”
“I’ll be very grateful,” Harvey said.
“It’s all right, Harvey. I’ll be glad to give you a shake.”
“Goodnight, then, old boy.”
“Goodnight.”
He rolled over on his side with his back to me, and after a while I could hear him breathing deeply and evenly in sleep, and I continued to lie awake on my back, hearing besides his breathing the sounds of the river and the trees and all the other sounds that occurred in the night. Finally I went to sleep, and a long time after that I woke up again, and sure enough, it was then just a few minutes after midnight by my watch. I shook Harvey awake, and we went down to the river and ran the line and took off four fat bullheads and a carp. We put the fish on a stringer and went back and lay down on our blankets again, and Harvey went right off to sleep, but I didn’t. I started thinking about Jolly and told myself that I had better quit, but I didn’t do that, either. The river kept running, and the trees kept stirring, and I kept thinking. The last time I looked at my watch before sleeping, it was three o’clock.
7
The next morning we ran the line again and had breakfast, and after breakfast I took a rod down to the gravel bar and started casting for channel cats, but I didn’t have any luck. I enjoyed it down there, though, between the high banks with the water running swiftly through the narrow channel between the bar and the bank opposite, and I stayed on in spite of having no luck, and I was still down there casting when I heard a car come along the narrow dirt road from the highway and stop beside the cabin up on the bank behind me. It was then, I guess, about the middle of the morning.
I could hear Harvey’s voice sounding surprised and a little excited, and Fran Tyler’s voice saying something shrilly in response to Harvey’s voice, and I brought in my line and cast it upstream again and watched it float down past me with the current, and someone came to the edge of the bank at my back and down the path with a slithering of dirt and a small rattling of dislodged stones. I knew it was Jolly because I could feel her and smell her, and the feeling was quite disturbing to my equanimity, and I understood that whatever developed in the fishing from this time on, the peace and comfort of it were gone.
“Hello, Felix,” Jolly said.
“We just said goodbye,” I said.
“That was yesterday. Eons ago.”
“It was supposed to be for eons. It was supposed to be forever.”
“Forever is such a long time. Don’t you find it so?”
“What do you want, Jolly?”
“I guess what I want is you. That seems to be the simple truth of it, and it is constantly making me humble myself.”
“I
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