THE STORY OF A SALMON. \J 



and Sidney and Valparaiso ; and the man at the 

 corner grocery sells them at twenty cents a can. 



All this time our salmon is going up the river, 

 eluding one net as by a miracle, and soon having 

 need of more miracles to escape the rest; passing 

 by Astoria on a fortunate day, which was Sunday, 

 the day on which no man may fish if he expects to 

 sell what he catches, till finally he came to where 

 nets were few, and, at last, to where they ceased al- 

 together. But there he found that scarcely any of 

 his many companions were with him ; for the nets 

 cease when there are no more salmon to be caught 

 in them. So he went on, day and night, where the 

 water was deepest, stopping not to feed or loiter on 

 the way, till at last he came to a wild gorge, where 

 the great river became an angry torrent, rushing 

 wildly over a huge staircase of rocks. But our 

 hero did not falter; and summoning all his forces, 

 he plunged into the Cascades. The current caught 

 him and dashed him against the rocks. A whole 

 row of silvery scales came off and glistened in the 

 water like sparks of fire, and a place on his side 

 became black-and-red, which, for a salmon, is the 

 same as being black-and-blue for other people. 

 His comrades^ tried to go up with him; and one 

 lost his eye, one his tail, and one had his lower 

 jaw pushed back into his head like the joint of a 

 telescope. Again he tried to surmount the Cas- 

 cades; and at last he succeeded, and an Indian on 

 the rocks above was waiting to receive him. But 

 the Indian with his spear was less skilful than he 

 was wont to be, and our hero escaped, losing only 

 a part of one of his fins ; and with him came one 



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