A crow lived in a thick forest filled with many birds. The crow was very happy with carefree life until he saw a swan one day. The swan was flying over a lake. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. It must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He shared his thoughts with the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I thought so, too, until I met a parrot. It had brilliant colours of red and blue. No other bird could be happier than the parrot.”

The crow went off in search of the parrot and found it resting on the top of an old tree. The parrot explained, “I, too, was very happy until I chanced upon a peacock. My colours paled in comparison to the peacock’s. Its rich colours put my coat to shame.”

Curiosity defeated the crow, who was determined to look for the beautiful peacock. He finally found the peacock at the zoo. Hundreds of people gathered around to watch the peacock and its beautiful feathers. After the crowd had left, the crow rested itself on a rock and said, “Dear peacock, you are so beautiful. Every day, people come just to see you. People either drive me away or avoid me when they see me. You must be the happiest bird on the planet.”

The peacock replied, “My beauty has forced me to be kept in this zoo. In the first few months I spent here, I often thought to myself that if I were a crow, I could be enjoying a carefree life outside. Then, after many months of struggling, I have come to realize that I need to learn to be happy with what I have instead of expecting what I do not have. I am happy because I am satisfied with my life here.”

He tried it once more and he felt himself going when he turned the fish. The fish righted himself and swam off again slowly.

I'll try it again, the old man promised himself, although he had little strength now and could not see things clearly.

He tried it again and it was the same. So he thought, and he felt himself going before he started; I will try it once again.

He took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the fish's pain and the fish came over onto his side and swam gently, his mouth almost touching the boat.

The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon(鱼叉) as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength, and more strength he had just gathered, into the fish's side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the height of the man's chest. He felt the iron go in and he leaned(倚靠) on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it.

Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty. He seemed to hang in the air above the old man. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the boat.

From The Old Man and the Sea

By Ernest Hemingway