58 OLD BLACK BASS 



He wants one law for each class of phe- 

 nomena: for gravitation, for motive, for 

 worship, one principle for all true govern- 

 ment. And he has sought for one motive to 

 explain every fish's strike. 



He will never find it. One fish differs 

 from another as one dog from another or 

 one boy differs from another boy. The first 

 boy throws a stone through the grocery- 

 man's window because he is mad at the 

 storekeeper; the second does the same thing 

 because he is curious about the result; the 

 third because he is hungry and wants the 

 cookies behind the glass; and the fourth 

 merely because he wants to throw and surg- 

 ing nature is prompting him. 



So do fish strike. One is curious, one 

 hungry, one instinctive in chasing a moving 

 object, one is angry. No explanation that 

 overlooks individual differences to seek a 

 common motive will ever be accurate. To 

 explain a strike is to know the nature of the 

 one fish concerned. 



As the school continued on its way Old 

 Black Bass alone retained his mood. He 

 brooded over the lure. Not so much be- 

 cause he missed it, for he had struck only 



