🚀 go-pugleaf

I am trying to incorporate some file access into my Java applet.  I would
like to keep the data for my program in a file stored in the same directory
as my applet class file.  I originally used a BufferedReader along with a
FileReader, but this causes security exceptions to be raised by browsers.  I
then switched to a BufferedReader and an InputStreamReader but I then get
the following NullPointerException:

java.lang.NullPointerException
        at java.io.InputStreamReader.read(Compiled Code)
        at java.io.BufferedReader.fill(Compiled Code)
        at java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(Compiled Code)
        at FortuneTeller2.Applet1.getFortunes(Compiled Code)
        at FortuneTeller2.Applet1.init(Applet1.java:98)
        at sun.applet.AppletPanel.run(Compiled Code)
        at

Here is my code that is generating the error (FYI line 98 referenced in the
error above is the line that calls this method.  If anyone can help me out I
would greatly appreciate it!  Here is the code for the method generating the
errors.  (NOTE:  I am currently running this applet locally on my PC for a
school project but would like to deploy it to a web site if possible.)
Thanks much, Jen

public void getFortunes() {
    try { file = new URL(""+getDocumentBase()+ "fortunes.txt"); }
    catch(MalformedURLException e) {}
    try { InputStream data = file.openStream();  }
    catch(IOException e) {}
    BufferedReader input = null;
    int fortuneNum, lineNum;

    try { input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(data));
           for (fortuneNum = 0; fortuneNum < 24; fortuneNum++)
                 for(lineNum = 0; lineNum < 4; lineNum++)
                     fortune[fortuneNum][lineNum] = input.readLine(); }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e) {}
    catch(IOException e) {}
}