842 
I AND JIT BOOT PART COJIPANY. 
out easily enougli; but the angle made by the lower 
and upper parts of my leg (the knee being the vertex) 
would then become so small as to deprive me of the 
power of lifting it higher, and, when I attempted to 
bear my weight on it to haul up the other, I only 
worked down deeper. 
I was glad enough when a couple of strong arms lifted 
me bodily out, minus one boot; and, after thanking my 
stalwart friend, lay cautiously doivn upon the hard part 
of the beach, and shoved my arm down after the miss- 
ing article, jvhich, singular to say, I drew out perfectly 
empty. It had collapsed as soon as my foot left it ; and 
all that I had to do was to pull it quietly on and walk 
more carefully in future. 
As soon as I bad stamped my foot well down into the 
softened leather, and scraped off a pound or more of tlio 
adhering patent bootjack-mixture, I took a long stick 
and shoved it down the half-filled hole from which I had 
rescued my boot, to see how fiir I might have sunk had 
not a “ friend in need” been at hand. It had gone down 
only about two feet when I felt a rock or some other 
hard substance; and we subsequently found that these 
“patches” seldom extended to a greater depth, so that, 
though considerably inconvenient, they were not at all 
dangerous. 
