The Flatties 



ways soberly gay. And yet it was not a fish to oppose itself to cir- 

 cumstances. It did not fight its environment, but accepted it. 

 The fish became one with the sand it lived on. It changed its col- 

 ours : it was never twice the same. Over every bank it altered as 

 it ranged always in tune with the bed on which it lay, though it 

 was never a bed of its owm making. Yet the plaice converted it 

 into itself by a gentle adaptation. It did not become the colour of 

 the sand. No. The fish changed itself. It changed into such a rich 

 conflagration of contrasting and harmonising colours that the sea 

 floor on which it lay became an extension of its own pattern. It 

 did not hide itself. The sea hid under its fins. And that was what 

 Jan loved, the gay supple strength of the plaice, its refusal to ac- 

 cept any environment as uncongenial or unalterable - the moral 

 courage. 



Of course, Jan was naive. Plaice were not like that. Plaice 

 were fish, were stupid, had no morality. Yet Jan's love of them 

 was amoral love. It had a great affect on his life. They had a stab- 

 ility he had long aimed at, the stoic stability which does not care 

 what happens and which yet goes on to attempt to make the best 

 happen. 



It was found chiefly in their feeding. They ate anything, like 

 the cod. But they were not so murderous. They could lie still, 

 disappear for months on end, sucking in water through a comb of 

 sand, breathing in their watery way, not feeding. For three months 

 of most years they practised this ascetic discipline. They starved. 

 They hid themselves in sand and went without food. They grew 

 thinner and, as the sea's year grew colder, they themselves became 

 more cold. Yet they did not hurry. They did not move or at- 

 tempt to force the pace of the tides. They lay hidden and waited. 

 Then the sun would come. The marine plants would begin their 

 annual regeneration. And the animals that lived on these plants 

 would enter again on their cycle of reproduction. The waters 

 warmed, and the blood of the plaice warmed with them. Then, 

 finally, it woke. It struck. It killed and it ate. There was a greater 

 economy in its way of life than Jan had found among the gadoids. 



103 



