“My head burns, and the pillow scorches!” moaned he. “I am suffocating! O for a breath of the fresh air in the fields and woods! Why should I not go and enjoy it? I will!” he exclaimed, and with that he sprang out of bed, ran out of the room and through the front door, and then down the road and into a neighboring field.
“This is delicious!” he said, as he threw himself down. “Now I can breathe, and am myself again.”
But soon his tongue again became parched; his skin burned, and pains pierced his head. “Oh,” he cried, “the fire-demon has followed me here! If only I could plunge into a river of cold water I should be well.” He arose and wandered on until he saw before him a broad, shining river, into which he immediately plunged.
He was an expert swimmer, and he dived to the bottom, then skimmed along the top, his queue floating on the water, and looking like an eel. “This is happiness,” he said; “who would live on land who could live in water?”
Just then he heard close to him a funny sort of chuckle, and turning round, he saw a large fish staring at him with round eyes, and with a peculiar twist of its mouth which Sin could see was caused by laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” he asked.
“You,” replied the fish.
“Why do you laugh at me?” he inquired.
“I laughed at what you said,” answered the fish. “The idea of a man knowing what the delight of living in water is was so funny that I couldn’t help laughing, and it has made me feel very uncomfortable, because I am not used to doing that.”
Then Sin asked why a fish should enjoy the water more than a man, and the fish replied that a man would like to swim and dive for a little while, but his ugly limbs, which made him look like a frog, would soon tire. And then, when a man is hungry, he has to seek his food on land, while a fish can find nourishment while gliding through the water, and that without fatigue and almost without movement.