I tell
you I heard the child's skull crack like an egg-shell! There, let's
talk no more about it, or the whole matter. It's a bad business, and
I'm not answerable for it, or you either; so let's go and do what we
are answerable for, and identify--"
"Sir! you will be so good as to recollect," said the Lieutenant, with
ruffled plumes.
"I do; I do! I beg your pardon a thousand times, I'm sure, for being
so rude: but you know as well as I, sir, there are a good many things
in the world which won't stand too much thinking over; and last night
was one."
"Very true, very true; but how did you get ashore?"
"I get ashore? Oh, well enough! Why not?"
"'Gad, sir, you were near enough being drowned at last; only that
girl's pluck saved you."
"Well; but it did save me: and here I am, as I knew I should be when I
first struck out from the ship."
"Knew!--that is a bold word for mortal man at sea."
"I suppose it is: but we doctors, you see, get into the way of looking
at things as men of science; and the ground of science is experience;
and, to judge from experience, it takes more to kill me than I have
yet met with. If I had been going to be snuffed out, it would have
happened long ago."
"Hum! It's well to carry a cheerful heart; but the pitcher goes often
to the well, and comes home broken at last."
"I must be a gutta-percha pitcher, I think, then, or else--
"'There's a sweet little cherub who sits up aloft,' etc.
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