so close to shore, and that moreover there were those nigh unto him who
could have helped him if they had had a Mind to it. Close upon him was
a Fat gentleman in a clergyman's cassock and a prodigious Fluster, who
kept crying out, "Save him! Save him!" but budged not a foot to come to
his assistance himself; and, but a dozen yards or so, was a Flemish
Fellow, one of the Bathers, who, so far as I could make out from his
shaking his head and crying out, "nicht" and "Geld,"--the rest of his
lingo was Greek to me,--did refuse to save the Gentleman unless he had
more Money given him. For these Bathing-men were a most Mercenary Pack.
In a much shorter time than it has taken me to put this on Paper I had
off coat and vest, kicked off my shoes, and struck into the water. 'Twas
of the shallowest, and I had but to wade towards him who struggled. When
I came anigh him, he must even catch hold of me, clinging like Grim
Death or a Barnacle to the bottom of a Barge, very nearly dragging me
down. But I was happily strong; and so, giving him with my disengaged
arm a sound Cuff under the ear, the better to Preserve his Life, I
seized him by the waist with the other, and so dragged him up high, if
not dry, unto the Sandy Shore. And a pretty sight he looked there,
dripping and Shivering, although the sun shone Brightly, and he well
nigh Blue with Fright.

What do you think the first words were that my Gentleman uttered so soon
as he had got his tongue clear of Salt and Seaweed?

"You villain!" he cries to me, "you have assaulted me. Take witness,
Gentlemen, he hath stricken me under the Ear. I will have him in the
King's Bench for Battery. Mr. Hodge, you saw it; and you leave me this
day week for allowing your Patron to be within an inch of Drowning."

I was always of a Hot Temper, and this cavalier treatment of me after my
Services threw me into a Rage.

"Why, you little half-boiled Shrimp," I bawled out, "I have a mind to
clout your under t'other Ear, that Brothers may not complain of Favour,
and e'en carry you to where I found you."

The Gentleman in the cassock began to break out in excuses, saying that
his Patron would reward me, and that he was glad that an Englishman had
been by to rescue a Person of Quality from such great Peril, when that
Flanders Oaf younger--the extortionate villain--would not stir a finger
to help him unless he had half a guilder over and above his fee.

"Let him dry and dress himself," I said, in Dudgeo