But our hero soon grew tired of this quiet life. It seemed very stupid and humdrum when compared with Aunt Sheen’s marvelous tales of the great ocean, and the strange sights and thrilling adventures that there awaited the voyager. He was larger than his brothers and sisters, his sea-going instinct was strong within him, he longed for the wonders of the great, unknown world, and grew tired of Aunt Sheen’s repeated warnings.
This old fish always professed to be entirely uninterested in the doings of her youthful relatives. It was a matter of creed with her. But in spite of this fact she was very fussy over the young fish, and gave them a great deal of what Sammy considered tiresome advice.
“There is safety in numbers,” was her favorite saying. “When you want to go on a journey wait until your companions are ready, and go in a school. Dreadful things always happen to young fish if they start out by themselves, they get eaten by sharks, or caught by those awful two-legged monsters on land, and the devil-fish is always on the lookout for them.”
“But,” Sammy would protest, “you have always said that some of the most terrible experiences you ever had came when you were with a lot of others. That time you were nearly speared going up the rapids you were in a school, and when you were caught in the net and it broke—”
“It wouldn’t have broken if there hadn’t been a school of fish in it,” interrupted his aunt, tartly. “That just proves what I say; the weight of so many made the hole, and so I escaped.
“The only time when I came near getting caught was once when I was alone and got a hook in my gills. My! it was terrible! I ought to have known better, but I was very hungry that morning, and when I saw that beautiful fly hanging over the water—”
But Sammy had heard this story many times before, and was tired of the conversation.
“I don’t want to wait any longer for these lazy brothers and sisters of mine to get ready,” he said crossly. “Besides, if I did go in a school, I might get speared, or caught so that the rest could get away, and that would not suit me a bit. I’d rather risk the flies.”
“You are an impertinent young fish,” said Aunt Sheen, and she retired under her favorite rock in a rage.
That night when everything was very still, and all the world seemed asleep, alone and unobserved Sammy swam quietly down stream and started alone on his wanderings.