He had been solidly happy all day. Now he was really home. It was all back of him.Narrator
It was a big river now and he followed it. It was big and light and there were birches along it.Narrator
He was there, in the good place. He was in his home where he had made it.Narrator
He watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins.Nick Adams
He saw them at the bottom of the pool, big trout looking to hold themselves on the gravel bottom against the current.Nick Adams
Nick felt happy. He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs.Narrator
It was all back of him. All he knew was that he was going on, breaking the last of the land into islands.Nick Adams
Never mind about the hills. Hills were hard to climb.Narrator
It was all right now. It was not too far. He could make it. He was not tired at all.Nick Adams
The one thing he could not bring himself to do was to go into a trout stream again.Nick Adams
The pressure of the water, the heavy, dangerous water, the shifting gravel bottom, the logs, the bank under-cut, the suck and the swirl of the water...Narrator
He was there, the old Nick Adams, before anything had ever happened.Narrator