asked the old man
to get down.

But then a strange thing happened. 'This old man,' said Sinbad, 'who
appeared so decrepit, nimbly threw his legs, which I now saw were
covered with a hard skin, over my neck, and seated himself on my
shoulders, at the same time squeezing my throat so tightly that I
expected to be strangled. I was so alarmed that I fainted away.' The old
man, however, would not loose his hold, but made his prisoner carry him
and gather fruit for him, and work for him generally, without paying him
any money or allowing him any liberty, merely raining down blows on him
for all that he did.

But at last, one day, Sinbad's opportunity came. The old man having
taken a drink which Sinbad had prepared for him out of some grapes he
found, became drowsy, and began to sway about on the shoulders of his
carrier, who, understanding how things were, threw his burden to the
ground, and thus got rid of him. Overjoyed at being once again free, he
walked towards the sea-shore, and here, to his great joy, he met some
people who belonged to a vessel which had anchored there to get fresh
water. He told them of his adventures, and they assured him that he had
fallen into the hands of the Old Man of the Sea, adding, 'You are the
first whom he has not strangled; he never left those whom he had once
mastered till he had put an end to their lives. The sailors and
merchants who land here never dare approach him except in a strong
body.'

No doubt _Chatterbox_ readers have often heard the phrase, 'The old man
of the sea,' which is only another term for a weight that we have taken
upon ourselves and cannot shake off. Thus, if a man is in debt, and
cannot get clear, the debt is said to be a veritable 'old man of the
sea' to him who carries the burden.

All Sinbad's fatigue at last ended, and he arrived happily at Bagdad,
where he lived a quiet and worthy life till the hour of his death.
Hindbad, when he heard the tale, was obliged to admit that the man whose
riches he had so envied had not won them without fearful perils, and
that his own miseries, as compared with those undergone by the owner of
the mansion, were as nothing; and Sinbad, remembering what he had once
suffered himself, behaved kindly and generously to the porter, making
him his friend, and promising him that all his life he should have
reason to remember Sinbad the Sailor.

AFLOAT ON THE DOGGER BANK.

A Story of Adventure on the North Sea and in China.