It was a lovely evening when John arrived at his uncle Willy’s fish farm. Uncle Willy had promised to take John fishing in a boat. John was very excited at the prospect for he had never been in a boat before.John found Uncle Willy sitting on the bank of a large fish pond. His uncle was preparing some fishing rods. John greeted him, “Hi, Uncle.”“Ah, John, you are here already,” his uncle replied. “Let’s get going. You take that fishing rod there and get into the boat”.“Okay, uncle,” replied John. He picked up the fishing rod and walked towards the boat.The boat was floating gently on the water and John did not have the slightest clue how to get in. He put one foot in the boat and the boat started sliding away from him. Startled he withdrew his foot and nearly fell into the water.“How do I get in?” he asked.In reply Uncle Willy grabbed the boat with one hand and motioned John to get in. Carefully John stepped into the boat and sat down. He felt strange sitting in a boat that kept bouncing up and down and sideways too.Uncle Willy untied the mooring rope and stepped into the boat. He took an oar and expertly steered the boat out into the middle of the lake.John felt both excitement and fear. It was indeed exciting to be in a boat for the first time. It was also fearful because he was afraid he might fall into the water. Anyhow he watched the boat glide smoothly over the water. The view of the pond from the boat was beautiful. It was great.After a minute or so Uncle Willy stopped the boat and dropped a brick tied to a rope over the side of the boat. This was his make-shift anchor and it did its job pretty well. “Let’s fish,” Uncle Willy said to John.So the two of them got about the joyful task of casting their lines into the calm water of the pond.Presently John saw his float jiggle a bit before it disappeared straight into the water. Wow! There must be a big fish on his line! In his excitement John stood up in the boat to pull his line in. that was his undoing. He did not know it was not a good idea to stand in a boat for the boat would become very unstable. Since he had never been in a boat before he did not know that. So as soon as he stood up, the boat gave a mighty heave and capsized dumping both of them into the pond with a big splash.One moment John was grabbing frantically at his line, the next he was grabbing frantically in the water for something to hold on to. It seemed like eternity before his hands found something solid. He held on tightly. It was part of the boat. However he was still underwater and his lungs ached for air. Instinctively he moved upwards still clutching the boat. Just as his lungs seemed like they would burst, John emerged above the water. What a relief it was. He sucked in the cool sweet air. Never before had he realized that the air was so sweet and soothing. My God, was he glad that he could breathe.When John could breathe normally again, he realized that the boat had capsized. He looked around to see where his uncle was. He heard laughter behind him. It was Uncle Willy laughing his head off.“You really look funny, you know?” Uncle Willy guffawed.“What do you mean, uncle?” asked John.“Do you know you gave such a horrible yell when you fell into the water and was spluttering and puffing when you emerged from it. You looked like a clown in a circus!”John realized that he must have presented quite a sight to his uncle when he fell into the water. He laughed in return.“Well, that will teach you not to stand up suddenly in a boat, won’t it? Come, let’s push the boat to the bank and get it upright again,” his uncle ordered.Together they pushed the upside down boat towards the nearest bank.
0 comments:
Post a Comment