BLUE-FISHING. 291 



examined the mortars, the guns, the wagons, and 

 finally insisted on taking a lesson in resuscitating the 

 drowned, by pretending he was dead, and making 

 the men go through the entire operation of bringing 

 him back to life, in spite of all the dragging, 

 squeezing, pulling, pounding, that it implied. Be- 

 coming in the course of the proceeding quite en- 

 thusiastic, and evidently longing to put his newly 

 acquired knowledge in practice on some one else as 

 soon as possible. Throughout the rest of the trip 

 I was haunted with the terrible feeling that he was 

 watching me with the fiendish hope that I would 

 fall overboard and be drowned, in order that he 

 might have the satisfaction of bringing me to, and 

 thus adding one more to the list of lives that he has 

 saved, and in spite of the to me horrible possibility, 

 that scientific resuscitation might fail in that par- 

 ticular instance. Indeed I got to be quite nervous 

 when he was standing behind me and I happened to 

 be near the edge of the deck. 



After his return to the yacht, he started ofE again 

 to dig soft clams, carrying the Commissioner with 

 him, and it was an interesting sight to observe 

 those stout, sturdy and rather elderly gentlemen in 

 bathing dresses, that exhibited their forms to the 

 best advantage, digging away as if their lives de- 

 pended on the result of their labors, and returning 

 proud of a half-filled boat of the bivalves. Evi- 

 dently good consciences, or good sport, or both 

 combined through life bring their reward. After 

 dinner the vessel was got under-way and a trip was 



