"
The fact is, Squire, that neither the doctor nor Cutler knew, that to
avoid falling under the circumstances I was placed in, and to escape
without capsizing the canoe, was a feat that no man, but one familiar
with the management of those fragile barks, and a good swimmer, too,
can perform. Peter was aware of it, and appreciated it; but the other
two seemed disposed to cut their jokes upon me; and them that do that,
generally find, in the long run, I am upsides with them, that's a
fact. A cat and a Yankee always come on their feet, pitch them up in
the air as high and as often as you please.
"Now for it," said I, and away we went at a 2.30 pace, as we say of
our trotting horses. Cutler and the doctor cheered us as we went; and
Peter, as the latter told me afterwards, said: "A man who can dwell
like an otter, on both land and sea, has two lives." I indorse that
saw, he made it himself; it's genuine, and it was like a trapper's
maxim. Warn't it?
As soon as I landed I cut off for the house, and in no time rigged up
in a dry suit of our host's, and joined the party, afore they knew
where they were. I put on a face as like the doctor's as two clocks of
mine are to each other. I didn't do it to make fun of him, but out of
him. Oh, they roared again, and the doctor joined in it as heartily as
any of them, though he didn't understand the joke. But Peter didn't
seem to like it.
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