The Fisherman.
Master.—What do you get by your craft?
Fisherman.—Food, and clothing, and money.
Master.—How do you catch fish?
Fisherman.—I get into my boat, and place my nets in the river, and I cast a hook and baskets, and I take whatever they hold.
Master.—What if they are unclean fishes?
Fisherman.—The unclean I cast out, and take the clean for food.
Master.—Where do you sell your fish?
Fisherman.—In the town.... The townsmen buy them. I cannot catch as many as I can sell.
Master.—What sorts of fish do you catch?
Fisherman.—Eels, and pike, minnows, eelpout, trout, and lamprey, and such sprats as swim in a river.
Master.—Why don’t you fish in the sea?
Fisherman.—Sometimes I do, but seldom, for it is a long row for me to the sea.
Master.—What do you catch in the sea?
Fisherman.—Herrings, and salmon, porpoises, and sturgeon, oysters and crabs, mussels, periwinkles, cockles, plaice, and soles, and lobsters, and many such things.
Master.—Do you wish to catch a whale?
Fisherman.—No.
Master.—Why?
Fisherman.—Because it is a dangerous thing to catch a whale. It is safer for me to go to the river with my boat than to go with many boats on a whale-hunt.
Master.—Why so?
Fisherman.—Because I would sooner catch a fish that I can slay than one who can sink or kill not me only but also my mates with one blow.
Master.—But, still, many catch whales, and escape the dangers, and obtain a great price therefor.
Fisherman.—That’s true, but I dare not, on account of the cowardliness of my mind.