s usherman, ha'
drawn all Thickenham common on his'n left leg for a stocking loike."

"Come," thought I, "it's quite time, after that, for the honour of the
academy, to beat a retreat, or we shall be beaten hollow by this
heavy-shod clodpole. Mr Riprapton," said I, "I don't bear you any
malice--but I recollect my wager. If I extricate you out of the
difficulty, will you own that I have won it?"

"Gladly," said he, very sorrowfully.

"Come here, my lads, out knives and cut away the turf." We soon removed
the earth as far down as to where the hole of the wooden leg joined to
the shank. "Now, my lads," said I, "we must unscrew him." Round and
round we twirled him, his outstretched living leg forming as pretty a
fairy-ring on the green sod, with its circumgyrations, as can be
imagined. At last, after having had a very tolerable foretaste of the
pillory, we fairly unscrewed him, and he was once more disengaged from
his partial burial-place. I certainly cannot say that he received our
congratulations with the grace of a Chesterfield, but he begged us to
continue our exertions to recover for him his shank, or otherwise he
would have to follow Petruchio's orders to the tailor--to "hop me over
every kennel home." For the sake of the quotation, we agreed to assist;
and, as many of us catching hold of it as could find a grip, we tugged,
and tugged, and tugged. Still the stiff clay did not seem at all
inclined to relinquish the prize it had so fairly won. At length, by
one tremendous and simultaneous effort, we plucked it forth; but, in
doing so, those who retained the trophy in their hands were flung flat
on their backs, whilst the newly-gained leg pointed upwards to the
zenith. Having first wiped a little of the deep yellow adhesion away
from it, we joined the various parts of the man together; and, he taking
singular care to avoid those spots where rushes grew, we all reached our
home, with one exception, in the highest glee--as to the two wagers, he
behaved like a gentleman, and _acknowledged_ the debt--which was a great
deal more than I ever expected.

After having worked some fifty problems out of Hamilton Moore, of
blessed memory, and having drawn an infinity of triangles with all
possible degrees of incidence, with very neat little ships, now upon the
base, now upon the hypothenuse, and now upon the perpendicular, my
erudite usher pronounced me to be a perfect master of the noble science
of navigation in all