But one thing troubled Fishin' Jimmy.

He wanted to be a "fisher of men."  That was what the Great Teacher
had promised he would make the fishermen who left their boats to
follow him.  What strange, literal meaning he attached to the
terms, we could not tell.  In vain we--especially the boys, whose
young hearts had gone out in warm affection to the old man--tried
to show him that he was, by his efforts to do good and make others
better and happier, fulfilling the Lord's directions.  He could not
understand it so.  "I allers try to think," he said, "that 't was
me in that boat when he come along.  I make b'l'eve that it was out
on Streeter Pond, an' I was settin' in the boat, fixin' my lan'in'
net, when I see him on the shore.  I think mebbe I 'm that
James--for that's my given name, ye know, though they allers call
me Jimmy--an' then I hear him callin' me 'James, James.'  I can
hear him jest 's plain sometimes, when the wind 's blowin' in the
trees, an' I jest ache to up an' foller him.  But says he, 'I 'll
make ye a fisher o' men,' an' he aint done it.  I 'm waitin'; mebbe
he 'll larn me some day."

He was fond of all living creatures, merciful to all.   But his
love for our dog Dash became a passion, for Dash was an angler.
Who that ever saw him sitting in the boat beside his master,
watching with eager eye and whole body trembling with excitement
the line as it was cast, the flies as they touched the surface--who
can forget old Dash?  His fierce excitement at rise of trout, the
efforts at self-restraint, the disappointment if the prey escaped,
the wild exultation if it was captured, how plainly--he who runs
might read--were shown these emotions in eye, in ear, in tail, in
whole quivering body!  What wonder that it all went straight to the
fisher's heart of Jimmy!  "I never knowed afore they could be
Christians," he said, looking, with tears in his soft, keen eyes,
at the every-day scene, and with no faintest thought of
irreverence.  "I never knowed it, but I'd give a stiffikit o'
membership in the orthodoxest church goin' to that dog there."