astle of the cutter on that
day morning, when he was about to keel-haul him, and the corporal, in
his state of mental and bodily depression, was certain that it was the
ghost of the poor lad whom he had so often tortured. Terror raised his
air erect--his mouth was wide open--he could not speak--he tried to
analyse it, but a wave dashed in his face--his eyes and mouth were
filled with salt water, and the corporal threw himself down on the
thwarts of the boat, quite regardless whether it went to the bottom or
not: there he lay, half groaning, half praying, with his hands to his
eyes, and his huge nether proportion raised in the air, every limb
trembling with blended cold and fright. One hour more, and there would
have been nothing but corporal parts of Corporal Spitter.

The reason why the last movement of the corporal did not swamp the boat
was, simply, that it was aground on one of the flats; and the figure
which had alarmed the conscience-stricken corporal was nothing more than
the outside beacon of a weir for catching fish, being a thin post with a
cross bar to it, certainly not unlike Smallbones in figure, supposing
him to have put his arms in that position.

For upwards of an hour did the corporal lie reversed, when the day
dawned, and the boat had been left high and dry upon the flat. The
fishermen came down to examine their weir, and see what was their
success, when they discovered the boat with its contents. At first they
could not imagine what it was, for they could perceive nothing but the
capacious round of the corporal, which rose up in the air, but, by
degrees, they made out that there was a head and feet attached to it,
and they contrived, with the united efforts of four men, to raise him
up, and discovered that life was not yet extinct. They poured a little
schnappes into his mouth, and he recovered so far as to open his eyes;
and they having brought down with them two little carts drawn by dogs,
they put the corporal into one, covered him up, and yoking all the dogs
to the one cart, for the usual train could not move so heavy a weight,
two of them escorted him up to their huts, while the others threw the
fish caught into the cart which remained, and took possession of the
boat. The fishermen's wives, perceiving the cart so heavily laden,
imagined, as it approached the huts, that there had been unusual
success, and were not a little disappointed when they found that,
instead of several bushels of fi