"Somewhat of a variety," Mr. Linden said with a smile. "What makes the fish come into your net?"
"Haven"t an idee!" said the man--"without it bees that fish is very onintelligent creturs. I don"t suppose fish has much brains, sir. And so they goes further and fares worse." Which statement of the case he appeared to think amusing.
"But then why do they sometimes stay out?" said Mr. Linden,--"because I have read of men who "toiled all the night and caught nothing"."
"Wall, you see," said the fisher, "they goes in shoals or flocks like, and they"s notional. Some of "em won"t come at one time o" tide, and some won"t come at another--and they has their favourite places too.
Then if a man sets his nets where the fish _aint_, all creation might work and catch nothin". This side the river is better now than over there."
"These men that I was talking of," said Mr. Linden, "once found a difference even between the two sides of their ship. But the other time, when they had caught nothing all the night, in the morning they caught so many that their net broke and both their ships began to sink."
"What kind o" folks was them?" said the oarsman a little scornfully.
"Why they were fishermen," said Mr. Linden. "They followed your calling first, and then they followed mine."
"What"s yourn?" said the other, in his tone of good-humoured interest.
"Guess you"re a speaker o" some sort--aint ye?"
"Yes--" Mr. Linden said, with a little demure gesture of the head,--"I am--"of some sort," as you say. But I"ve got an account of these men in my pocket--don"t you want to hear it?--it"s more interesting than any account you could have of me."
"Like to hear it well enough--" said the man at the net, setting himself astride the gunwale to listen, with the net hanging from his hand.
"I wouldn"t mind knowing how they worked it--" said the other man, while Mr. Linden threw a rope round one of the thole-pins of the fishing boat and gave the other end to Faith, and then took out his book. And Faith was amused at the men"s submissive attention, and the next minute did not wonder at all!--as she noted the charm that held them--the grace of mingled ease, kindliness, and power, in Mr. Linden"s manner and presence. Nothing could have greater simplicity, and it was not new to Faith, yet she looked at him as if she had never seen him before.
"A great many years ago," he said, "when the Son of G.o.d, our Lord Jesus Christ, was in this world, he went about healing sick people, and teaching every one the way to heaven; and the people came in great numbers to hear him.
""And it came to pa.s.s, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of G.o.d, he stood by the lake of Gennesareth, and saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.""
"We wash our"n by pullin" "em through the water," said the net man.
"The Lord entered one of the ships, which belonged to a man named Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the sh.o.r.e. "And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking, he unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering, said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.""
"In course! whether "twas any use or not,"--the man with the net said approvingly. "So he had oughter."
"Yes, and he knew it would be of use in some way, for G.o.d never gives a command without a reason. And when they had let down the net, "they enclosed a great mult.i.tude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.""
"That was a bigger haul than ever I see, yet," remarked the man.
"Neither had Simon ever seen anything like it--he knew that it was brought about by the direct power of G.o.d.
"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus" knees, saying, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all they that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken."
"Can"t see what he said _that_ fur," said the oarsman.
"No more don"t I!" said the other. "He had got a good haul o" fish, anyway--if he was ever so!--and we aint none of us white lilies."
"But then Peter knew that he ought to be a white lily--and such a new view of G.o.d"s power and greatness made him feel it more than ever. So that he was both afraid and ashamed,--he thought himself unworthy to have the Lord in his ship, and was afraid to have him stay there."
"I wouldn"t have asked him to go out, if he had been in mine,--_I_ don"t think!"--said the elder fisher slowly. "I don"t see as that chap need to ha" been afeard--he hadn"t done nothin" but good to him."
"But it"s what we do ourselves that makes us afraid," said Mr. Linden.
"So it was with Adam and Eve in the garden, you know--G.o.d had talked to them a great many times, and they were never afraid till they disobeyed him--then the moment he spoke they ran and hid themselves."
The oarsman was silent, the other man gave a sort of grunt that betokened interest.
"What shines had this feller been cuttin" up?"
"Why!" said Mr. Linden, starting up and taking his stand by the mast, as the little boat curtseyed softly over the waves, "if you tell one of your boys always to walk in one particular road, and you find him always walking in another--I don"t think it matters much what he"s doing there, to him or to you."
"Wall?"--said the man, with a face of curiosity for what was to come next, mingled with a certain degree of intelligence that would not confess itself.
"Well--Peter knew he was not in the way wherein the Lord commands us all to walk."
"I guess every feller"s got to pick out his own road for himself!" said the fisher, pulling up a foot or two of his net carelessly.
"That"s what Peter had thought,--and so he had lived, just as he chose.
But when he saw more of the glory of G.o.d, then he was afraid and confessed his sin. And what do you suppose the Lord said to him then?"
"What did Peter own up to?"
"The account gives only the general confession--that he was a sinful man, not worthy to have the Lord look upon him except in anger. You see he falls down at his feet and prays him to depart--he could not believe that the Lord would stay there to speak good to him."
"Well--what _did_ he say to him?"
""He said unto him, Fear not". And no one need fear, who humbly confesses his sins at the feet of Jesus, "for if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Then the Lord bade Simon and all his companions to follow him--and they obeyed. And now I want to tell you what this following means."
He put one arm round the mast, half leaning against it, and gave them what Faith would have called a "ladder"--pa.s.sing from the "Follow me,"
spoken to Peter,--to the young man who being bid to follow, "went away sorrowful",--to the description of the way given in the tenth chapter of John,--to the place whither the flock follow Christ--
""And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father"s name written in their foreheads." "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.""--
The men listened, open-mouthed and with intent eyes;--partly to the speaker, it was evident, and partly to what the speaker said. And that his words took hold, it was also evident. When he ceased, the man at the net dropped his eyes for a moment, a curious look of meditation covering his face.
"It"s easy to talk of follerin"," he said with a half laugh which was not of carelessness,--"and one might like to,--but it"s plaguey hard to know where to start!--"
"It"s easy for G.o.d to teach you and easy to ask him to do it. If it was anything else you wanted to do, you would not stop trying till you found out," said Mr. Linden--"and that is just the way here. Now I am going to give you a copy of all this," he said, throwing his own little Bible softly into Faith"s lap and stepping forward to the prow of the boat (which she thought held only lunch baskets)--"and I shall turn down a leaf at the story of the net full of good fishes--and another at a place that tells of a net full "of every kind, both bad and good."
And I want you to read them, and think about them, and find out how to follow Christ--and then come on!" He took his seat once more in the stern of the boat, and held out the Bible to the fisherman. The other man, slowly dipping his oars in and out, met his look too, but made no answer.
The man at the net took the book and turned over the leaves with a wondering, considering air.
"What do you reckon this here"s worth?" he said somewhat awkwardly, without raising his eyes from it.
"Worth daily reading and study--worth all you have in the world, if you will use it right," said Mr. Linden. "You need not think about any other value--I had it in trust to give away."
"I"m much obleeged to you,--I"ll take a look at it now and then. Do you live along here, anywheres?"
"In Pattaqua.s.set, just now," Mr. Linden said, as he prepared to make sail again. "I don"t very often come to this part of the river."
"Well hold on!" said the man, beginning to pull in his net with great vivacity,--"I"m bound to give you a fish--if I"ve got one here. Bear a hand, d.i.c.k! Haint you got a place on board there that you can stow it, without skeerin" the lady?"--