Winter came; and hunger and want pressed hard at the old man’s door. One day while he drew his net along the stream, he felt the shock of a great fish striking against the meshes down below, and presently, as the net came in, he saw a shape like living silver, leaping and darting to and fro to find some way of escape. Up to the bank he landed it, a great gasping fish. When he was about to kill it, he saw, to his astonishment, tears running out of its eyes, that gazed at him and seemed to reproach him for his cruelty. As he drew back, the Fish said: “Why should you kill me, who wish to live?” The old man, altogether bewildered at hearing himself thus addressed, answered: “Since I and my wife are hungry, and God gave you to be eaten, I have good reason for killing you.” “I could give you something worth far more than a meal,” said the Fish, “if you would spare my life.” “We are old,” said the ferryman, “and want only to end our days in peace. To-day we are hungry; what can be more good for us than a meal which will give us strength for the morrow, which is the new year?” The Fish said: “To-night some one will come and unfasten your boat, and ferry himself over, and you know nothing of it till the morning, when you see the craft moored out yonder by the further bank.” The old man remembered how the thing had happened in previous years, directly the Fish spoke. “Ah, you know that then! How is it?” he asked. “When you go back to your hut at night to sleep, I am here in the water,” said the Fish. “I see what goes on.” “What goes on, then?” asked the old man, very curious to know who the strange traveller might be. “Ah,” said the Fish, “if you could only catch him in your boat, he could give you something you might wish for! I tell you this: do you and your wife keep watch in the boat all night, and when he comes, and you have ferried him into mid-stream, where he cannot escape, then throw your net over him and hold him till he pays you for all your ferryings.” “How shall he pay me? All my ferryings of a lifetime!” “Make him take you to the land of Returning Time. There, at least, you can end your days in peace.” The old man said: “You have told me a strange thing; and since I mean to act on it, I suppose I must let you go. If you have deceived me, I trust you may yet die a cruel death.” The Fish answered: “Do as I tell you, and you shall die a happy one.” And, saying this, he slipped down into the water and disappeared. The ferryman went back to his wife supperless, and said to her: “Wife, bring a net, and come down into the boat!” And he told her the story of the Fish and of the yearly traveller. They sat long together under the dark bank, looking out over the quiet and cold moonlit waters, till the midnight hour. The air was chill, and to keep themselves warm they covered themselves over with the net and lay down in the bottom of the boat. It was the very hour when the old year dies and the new year is born.