[...]... beautiful But they were the falsest thing in the sea and the old man loved to see the big sea turtles eating them The turtles saw them, approached them from the front, then shut their eyes so they were completely carapaced and ate them filaments and all The old man loved to see the turtles eat them and he loved to walk on them on the beach after a storm and hear them pop when he stepped on them with the horny.. .The Old Man and the Sea Asiaing.com The boy was back now with the sardines and the two baits wrapped in a newspaper and they went down the trail to the skiff, feeling the pebbled sand under their feet, and lifted the skiff and slid her into the water [27] “Good luck old man. ” “Good luck,” the old man said He fitted the rope lashings of the oars onto the thole pins and, leaning forward against the. .. day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight Each one was trying to force the other’s hand down onto the - 25 - The Old Man and the Sea Asiaing.com table There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro’s face They... now the sun would rise The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see the other boats, low on the water and well in toward the shore, spread out across the current Then the sun was brighter and the glare came on the water and then, as it rose clear, the flat sea sent it back at his eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rowed without looking into it He looked down into the water and watched the. .. changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep Blood came out from under the fingernails of both his and the negro’s hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall and watched The walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their... break from the hook Then there was nothing “Come on,” the old man said aloud “Make another turn Just smell them Aren’t they lovely? Eat them good now and then there is the tuna Hard and cold and lovely Don’t be shy, fish Eat them.” He waited with the line between his thumb and his finger, watching it and the other lines at the same time for the fish might have swum up or down Then came the same delicate... fresh and hard and he laid them side by side and dropped the guts and the gills over the stern They sank leaving a trail of phosphorescence in the water The dolphin was cold and a leprous gray-white now in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him while he held his right foot on the fish’s head Then he turned him over and skinned the other side and cut each side off from the head down to the. .. against them The negro’s shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him Then the negro, after the rum, would try for a tremendous [69] effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago El Campeon, nearly three inches off balance But the old man. .. thrust of the blades in the water, he began to row out of the harbour in the dark There were other boats from the other beaches going out to sea and the old man heard the dip and push of their oars even though he could not see them now the moon was below the hills Sometimes someone would speak in a boat But most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars They spread apart after they were... a warbler and flying very low over the water The old man could see that he was very tired The bird made the stern of the boat and rested there Then he flew around the old man s head and rested on the line where he was more comfortable “How old are you?” the old man asked the bird “Is this your first trip?” [54] The bird looked at him when he spoke He was too tired even to examine the line and he teetered . When the boy came back the old man was asleep in the chair and the sun was down. The boy took the old army blanket off the bed and spread it over the back of the chair and over the old man s. woke and turned and looked at him. The old man nodded and the boy took his trousers from the chair by the bed and, sitting on the bed, pulled them on. The old man went out the door and the. point and the shank of The Old Man and the Sea Asiaing.com - 15 - the hook where the hand-forged hook projected from the head of the small tuna. The old man held the line delicately, and softly,