the end of the line? Who knows what we may be ketchin' ontirely
onbeknown to us? We may be ketchin' happiness, and we may be layin'
holt of sorrow. A bliss may be jerked up by us out of the depth; agin
a wretchedness and a heart-ache may grip holt the end of the line.
Poor fishers that we be! settin' in our frail little shallop on deep
waters over onknown depths, draggin' a onceasin' line along after us
night and day, year in and year out. The line is sot sometimes by
ourselves, but a great hand seems to be holdin' ours as we fasten on
the hook, a great protectin' Power seems to be behind us, tellin' us
where to drop the line, for we feel sometimes that we can't help
ourselves."

I wuz engaged in these deep thoughts as we glided onwards. Josiah wuz
wrestlin' with his hat brim, he would have acted pert and happy if it
hadn't been for that. At my request he had bought a straw hat to cover
his eyes from the sun and preserve his complexion, and so fur is that
man from megumness that he had got one with a brim so broad that it
stood out around his face like a immense white wing, floppin' up and
down with every gust of wind. He had seen some fashionable young
feller wear one like it and he thought it would be very becomin' and
stylish to get one for a fishin' excursion, little thinkin' of the
discomfort it would give him.

"Plague it all!" sez he, as it would flop up and down in front of his
eyes and blind him, "what made me hear to you, goin' a-fishin' blind
as a bat!"

Sez I, "Why didn't you buy a megum-sized one? Why do you always go to
extremes?"

"To please you!" he hollered out from under his blinders. "Jest to
please you, mom!"

Sez I, "Josiah Allen, you know you did it for fashion, so why lay it
off onto me? But," sez I, "if you'll keep still I'll fix it all
right."

"Keep still!" sez he, "I don't see any prospect of my doin' anything
else when I can't see an inch from my nose."

"Well," sez I, "push the brim back and I'll tie it down with my braize
veil."

"I won't wear a veil!" sez he stoutly. "No, Samantha, no money will
make me rig up like a female woman right here in a fashionable summer
resort, before everybody. How would a man look with a veil droopin'
down and drapin' his face?"

"Well," sez I, "then go your own way."

But the next time a gale come from the sou'west he wuz glad to submit
to my drapin' him; so I laid the brim back and tied the veil in a big
bow knot under his chin. Then agin he