I left the Snoqualmic Hotel in Olympia and walked down to the water. This quiet, lovely place was right at the end of Puget Sound, and a long way from the sea. Under the grey-blue sky a few old men sat around on boxes, smoking their pipes and selling firewood.
I sat down on a box next to an old man who wore an old raincoat. I filled my pipe, lit it, and look around me. 'I like this place,' I said to the old man. 'It's quiet and restful-- I like that. '
'Someone like you - you must know everybody in this town and round about,' I said.
' What's it worth?' He said.
I took a silver dollar out of my pocket and the old man looked at it.
'I don't know everybody, ' he said.
I put the dollar on my knee. ' Know anybody that keeps a lot of glodfish?' I asked.
A second old man, wearing shose but no socks, came over and stared at the dollar. The first man turned this head and shouted, ' Know anybody that keeps a lot of glodfish?'
'Finish? Finish it yourself!' Screamed the second man,and walked away.