"
"What is that, Ready?"
"A bathing-place for the children, and indeed for us all; we shall want
it when the hot weather comes on, but we will put it off till then. I
can tell you, sir, that although I don't mind building this wall in the
shallow water, I shall be very careful when the water is up to my
knees, for you don't know how bold the sharks are in these latitudes.
When I was at St. Helena, not very long ago, we had a melancholy proof
of it."
"Tell us the story, Ready."
"Well, two soldiers were standing on the rocks at St. Helena; the rocks
were out of the water, but the swell just broke over them. Two sharks
swam up to them, and one of them, with a blow of his tail, turning
round the same way, tripped one of them into the water, which was very
deep. His comrade was very much frightened, and ran to the barracks to
tell the story. About a week afterwards, a schooner was in Sandy Bay,
on the other side of the island, and the people seeing a very large
shark under the stern, put out a hook with a piece of pork, and caught
him; they opened him, and found inside of him, to their horror, the
whole of the body of the soldier, except the legs below the knees: the
monster had swallowed him whole, with the exception of his legs, which
it had nipped off when it closed its jaws.
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