''The boy saw that the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man's hands and he started to cry. He went out very quietly to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying. Many fishermen were around the skiff looking at what was lashed beside it and one was in the water, his trousers rolled up, measuring the skeleton with a length of line. 'How is he?' one of the fishermen shouted. 'Sleeping' the boy called. He did not care that they saw him crying. 'Let no one disturb him' 'He was 18 feet from nose to tail, 'the fisherman who was measuring him called. 'I beleive it,' the boy said. From the 'Old Man and The Sea' by Ernest Hemingway - for Gareth - ever present although absent....wish I had known you. Julie