THE STORY OF A SALMON. 17 
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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