Part 6 The Old Man and the SeaThe 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 lines that went straight down into the dark of the water.He kept them straighter than anyone did, so that at each level in the darkness of the streamthere would be a bait waiting exactly where he wished it to be for any fish that swam there.Others let them drift with the currentand sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred.But, he thought, I keep them with precision.Only I have no luck any more. But who knows?Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky.But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.The sun was two hours higher now and it did not hurt his eyes so much to look into the east.There were only three boats in sight now and they showed very low and far inshore.All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought.Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness.It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful.
