not make any headway. I
got to my feet and begged the boys to go to his help, but they all had
their clothes on, and they had so much confidence in Freeman as a
swimmer that they only said, "He'll get out."

"'But I could see no way in which he could get out. I had recovered a
little by this time, and I seized a large piece of driftwood, plunged
into the river again, and pushed this old limb of a tree across the
stream ahead of me. Freeman was sinking out of sight when he got his
hand on the bough. I was able to push him into water where he could get
a footing, but I somehow lost my own hold on the wood and found myself
sinking, utterly faint from a sort of collapse. There was a tree that
had fallen into the stream a few yards below. I was just able to turn
on my back and keep afloat until I could grasp the top branches of the
tree. Then I crept out--I never knew how, for I was only half
conscious. But I'll never forget the cry from the boys on the other
side of the stream that reached my ears as I lay exhausted alongside of
Freeman on the bank. "Hurrah for Tilley!" they shouted.'

"'No, they didn't.' It was the captain who contradicted me thus
abruptly, and I looked up in surprise.

"'That's not what they called you in those days,' said the captain.
'They shouted, "Hurrah for Stumpey!" They never called you anything but
"Stumpey."'

"'Who in thunder are you?' I said, getting to my feet.

"'Tom Freeman,' replied the captain, rising and grasping my hand.

"Well, I wasn't shot, as you can see for yourselves."

PERIWINKLE.

"Bring me that slate, Henriettar!"

Miss Tucker added a superfluous r to some words, but then she made
amends by dropping the final r where it was preceded by a broad vowel.
If she said _idear_, she compounded for it by saying _waw_. She said
_lor_ for law, and _dror_ for draw, but then she said _cah_ for car.
Some of our Americans are as free with the final r as the cockney is
with his initial h.

Miss Tucker was the schoolmistress at the new schoolhouse in West
Easton. I am not quite sure, either, that I have the name of the place
right. I think it may have been East Weston. Weston or Easton,
whichever it is, is a country township east of the Hudson River, whose
chief article of export is chestnuts; consequently it is not set down
in the gazetteer. After all, it doesn't matter. We'll call it East
Weston, if you please.

The schoolhouse was near a brook--a murmuring brook, of cour