oat is swamped, and all drowned in that strangling vortex.
No! the boat, which appeared to have the buoyancy of a feather, skipped
over the threatening horror, and, the next moment, was out of danger, the
boatman--a true boatman of Cockaigne that--elevating one of his sculls in
sign of triumph, the man hallooing, and the woman, a true Englishwoman
that--of a certain class--waving her shawl. Whether any one observed
them save myself, or whether the feat was a common one, I know not; but
nobody appeared to take any notice of them. As for myself, I was so
excited that I strove to clamber up the balustrade of the bridge, in
order to obtain a better view of the daring adventurers. Before I could
accomplish my design, however, I felt myself seized by the body, and,
turning my head, perceived the old fruit-woman, who was clinging to me.

'Nay, dear! don't--don't!' said she. 'Don't fling yourself over--perhaps
you may have better luck next time!'

'I was not going to fling myself over,' said I, dropping from the
balustrade; 'how came you to think of such a thing?'

'Why, seeing you clamber up so fiercely, I thought you might have had ill
luck, and that you wished to make away with yourself.'

'Ill luck,' said I, going into the stone bower, and sitting down. 'What
do you mean? ill luck in what?'

'Why, no great harm, dear! cly-faking perhaps.'

'Are you coming over me with dialects,' said I, 'speaking unto me in
fashions I wot nothing of?'

'Nay, dear! don't look so strange with those eyes of your'n, nor talk so
strangely; I don't understand you.'

'Nor I you; what do you mean by cly-faking?'

'Lor, dear! no harm; only taking a handkerchief now and then.'

'Do you take me for a thief?'

'Nay, dear! don't make use of bad language; we never calls them thieves
here, but prigs and fakers: to tell you the truth, dear, seeing you
spring at that railing put me in mind of my own dear son, who is now at
Bot'ny: when he had bad luck, he always used to talk of flinging himself
over the bridge; and, sure enough, when the traps were after him, he did
fling himself into the river, but that was off the bank; nevertheless,
the traps pulled him out, and he is now suffering his sentence; so you
see you may speak out, if you have done anything in the harmless line,
for I am my son's own mother, I assure you.'

'So you think there's no harm in stealing?'

'No harm in the world, dear! Do you think my own child would have been
tr