Tropical Experiences 193 



me as an enemy, the while I scooped them into the 

 profound and never-to-be-satisfied cavity of my 

 stomach. 



I was well-minded to make that my home, deeming 

 it best in all the seas I had yet visited, but I could 

 not endure the cold, the deadly chill that, creeping 

 up from southward, seized upon me and made me 

 helpless when I would fain have been most helpful 

 to myself. So I bade farewell reluctantly to my 

 good friends and hosts who had fed me so bountifully 

 upon themselves, and made my quiet way northward 

 across the Indian Ocean. Ah, that is a pleasantly 

 prolific sea ! For growing fish like myself there is 

 none better, if one does but keep a wary eye lifting for 

 the sword-fish and the grampus, who alone of all the 

 fishy kind can give such as I am an uneasy moment. 

 Many months I lingered in those quiet waters, feeding, 

 ever feeding, and growing apace, so that I began to 

 wax prideful, and wonder if in all the wide sea there 

 was ever seen an Albacore like me. 



Presently I won to the intricacies of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, which queerly reminded me of my 

 birthplace except for the strange currents that roared 

 and eddied round about those clustering isles and reefs. 

 But for food ! They simply swarmed with all that 

 I needed or desired, and I fed me full and grew lazily 

 fat, as if in all the seas I alone was being fed, I alone 

 had a claim upon the Power whose provision had 

 arranged for the sustenance of His humblest creatures. 



Throughout the whole of that vast network of 

 reefs, submerged volcanoes, and island bases, I roamed 

 with never a care. Always I kept the same watchful 

 outlook for mine ancient enemy the sword-fish, whom 

 alone, of all the deep-sea folk, I now dreaded ; always 

 I bore in mind that to enter any cavern, however 



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