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Then Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip came down to see how we were getting on, and stood cheering and encouraging the timid ones, who were loth to get duckings by learning to swim. I had been trying for some time, right out in the middle, to float without moving, while Mercer and Hodson in turn had their tries.

I did not blame the old fellow, for many a time we would have some pretty hard knocks and duckings in our business on the rivers and railroads; but I was well and hearty and then I was of a roving disposition, and enjoyed the life I was leading so I said: "Bill, you go up there and take a rest just as long as you like; but for me, I could not think of settling down on a wharf-boat, with nothing but cow-boys to break the monotony.

The first time Pere Tellier saw the King in his cabinet, after having been presented to him, there was nobody but Bloin and Fagon in a corner. Fagon, bent double and leaning on his stick, watched the interview and studied the physiognomy of this new personage his duckings, and scrapings, and his words. The King asked him if he were a relation of MM. le Tellier.

Before our nice little job is completed, we get two or three more comfortable duckings, and finally crawl on board half-drowned, and thankful that we were not altogether washed away, as many better fellows have been, at that same blessed task of jib-furling on a stormy night. It happens to be our turn, or 'trick, at the wheel, and we must at once take to it, all dripping and exhausted as we are.

The sea was rough: a strong wind from the south-west had been blowing all the afternoon. The boat began to pitch and toss: the passengers were drenched. Though nothing of a sailor in the nautical sense, Juve took his duckings with equanimity: a bit of a pitch and toss would keep Vinson occupied. The fog was Juve's friend: it lent an air of vagueness, of confusion, to Butler-Vinson's surroundings.

This may be easily accounted for, in such a climate, by their constant exposure to heat and rain, to say nothing of gales of wind and frequent sound duckings from the spray of the sea. The natives of Bengal are not favourites of mine: they are much given to lying and thieving, and are sad cowards.

No thanks, thought I, as we left the hated shores in the distance, for the hours I have walked over your stones barefooted, with hides on my head, for the burdens I have carried up your steep, muddy hill, for the duckings in your surf; and for the long days and longer nights passed on your desolate hill, watching piles of hides, hearing the sharp bark of your eternal coyotes, and the dismal hooting of your owls.

In a sea, the greater part of the deck is all awash, and a trip from the bridge to the engine-house means not only repeated duckings, but a fair chance of being swept overboard. The first of these boats, called the "101," was built in sections, the plates being forged at Cleveland, and the bow and stern built at Wilmington, Del. The completed structure was launched at Duluth.

I realized how many bumps and bruises and pains and duckings and scorchings might have been spared me, had I taken the step earlier. But it is never too late to mend. Probably I had still a few years in which to enjoy life.

Little Harman's misadventure, the enforced long swimming in rough water, the two duckings and their disagreeable effects on throat and lungs, left him in a wretched condition, but by no means in need of a coffin.