water. And now a shower of rain and sleet came down upon the unprotected
body of the corporal, which added to his misery, to his fear, and to
his despair.

"Where am I?" muttered he; "what will become of me? Ah, mein Gott!
twenty tousand tyfels--what had I to do in a boat--I, Corporal Van
Spitter?" and then he was again silent for nearly half an hour. The wind
shifted to the northward, and the rain cleared up, but it was only to
make the corporal suffer more, for the freezing blast poured upon his
wet clothes, and he felt chilled to the very centre of his vitals. His
whole body trembled convulsively, he was frozen to the thwart, yet there
was no appearance of daylight coming, and the corporal now abandoned
himself to utter hopelessness and desperation, and commenced praying. He
attempted the Lord's Prayer in Dutch, but could get no further than "art
in heaven," for the rest, from disuse, had quite escaped the corporal's
memory. He tried to recollect something else, but was equally
unsuccessful; at last, he made up a sad mixture of swearing and praying.

"Mein Gott--a hundred tousand tyfels--gut Gott--twenty hundred tousand
tyfels! Ah, Gott of mercy--million of tyfels! holy Gott Jesus! twenty
millions of tyfels--Gott for dam, I die of cold!" Such were the
ejaculations of the corporal, allowing about ten minutes to intervene
between each, during which the wind blew more freshly, the waves rose,
and the boat was whirled away.

But the corporal's miseries were to be prolonged; the flood-time of
water was now spent, and the ebb commenced flowing against the wind and
sea. This created what is called boiling water, that is, a contest
between the wind forcing the waves one way, and the tide checking them
the other, which makes the waves to lose their run, and they rise, and
dance, and bubble into points. The consequence was, that the boat, as
she was borne down by the tide against them, shipped a sea every moment,
which the wind threw against the carcass of the corporal, who was now
quite exhausted with more than four hours' exposure to a wintry night,
the temperature being nearly down to zero. All the corporal's stoicism
was gone; he talked wildly, crouched and gibbered in his fear, when he
was suddenly roused by a heavy shock. He raised his head, which had sunk
upon his chest, and beheld something close to him, and to the gunnel of
the boat. It was a thin, tall figure, holding out his two arms at right
angles, and apparentl