ANOTHER PART OF THE RIVER. 57 



Swivel. Do so. And how reckon we our wounds, 

 comrades, after this desperate affair ? Any maladvert- 

 ences or sanguinary effusions ? any dental infrac- 

 tions or dislocations of the ossa ? the nasal arches 

 uninjured, and no tendons divided ? Thou hast a 

 curtain on thy left eye, Leister, I note ; and ho ! 

 Harry Hackle, thou art lame as a modern hexameter ; 

 and thou, Tom Otter ! But there is nothing like 

 it, boys. 



Hackle. Amen, Doctor ! We have come off swim- 

 mingly ; save the hoof-mark of that drunken be- 

 hemoth, I am skatheless as ever. It were better to be 

 maimed outright with an oaken cudgel, than have such 

 a monstrous piece of ordnance as a ganger's leg driven 

 athwart our shins ! 



Sivivel. Revenge, Harry, acts as a sweet salve. 

 Here come Gaff and May-fly to retaliate for thee. 

 We will of a truth cool the dog's forehead with this 

 surcharge of the element ; and, ye tritons and river- 

 amphitrites, bear a hand ! How cozily the rascal 

 lies ; his huge bluster-ball of a skull half sunk 

 in moss. He hath a touch of the Kussian autocrat 

 in his countenance. 'Tis a pity he is not a tyrant, 

 and we patriots how neatly we could massacre 

 him ! 



Leister. Shame, Doctor ; you have not the heart of 

 a Turk. 



Swivel. Towards this excise-bear, that I have, 

 Jack. We shall jerk off our thunder-plump athwart 



