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    have it , my all , in an oil-skin case , and a leather portfolio , suspended over my shoulder . In taking these off for the purpose of carrying them more conveniently into the boat , I laid a stick down and forgot it . When we had been battling with , and twisting and sinuositing among the ice for fifteen minutes or more ,

    without having made much progress , for the blocks of ice rather increased in size and number , I suddenly recollected my stick—I was very unwilling to lose it , for it had been my only companion through a pedestrian journey of more than two thousand miles ; and , besides , it had another value , it was given to me by an English settler at Albion , in the Illinois . When I

    mentioned my loss , the boatmen very readily offered to put back , troublesome as was the task of doing so , On re-landing—from what cause I need not say—I am sure it was not a presentiment of danger and disaster , for I saw nothing to awaken such a feeling , I changed my mind , and decided on remaining on that side of the river , to seek a home for the night ; I gave the men halfa-dollar , thanked , and bade them good night ; then I remained

    looking at the men and boat . While one was employed at the oars , the other laboured in thrusting the obstructions aside with a boat-hook ; when , in the act of lifting amass from the boat ' s bow , he brought the gunnel low in the water , and at that moment a block of ice struck her—rolled into the boat—she lurched , and instantly filled ; the men threw up a loud and scattering shriek , and boat and all were gone , overwhelmed beneath the ice !

    * And you instantly fell on your knees , and returned thanks for your escape / were the words which I heard from a female in a circle in which I once related this incident . 1 was not looking in the direction of the speaker at the moment , but I answered in that intenseness of voice which indicates much more than is

    spoken ; it was that subduedness , that suppressed tone , which is used by one who compels himself to laugh at the recollection of a strong and painful excitement , which excitement arises again as memory recalls the circumstances . —My words were— Oh , no , indeed !—I was intent on other thoughts then ; ' and as I spoke my eyes turned , and I saw the lady , who with the sweetest

    calmness , and most beautiful composure of countenance , sat looking at me ; the palm of one of her delicate hands turned out towards me—fingers open and pointing upwards ; the gesticulative expression of c keep off * and indignant deprecation combined : the wrist of that hand rested on one of those little knick-knackery , bijouterie tables , which we see in drawing-rooms . The hand

    excepted , the keenest scrutiny would have failed to discover any sign of thought or feeling in the face , form , or figure . It was exquisitely beautiful substantial nothing on which I gazed ; she was as vivacious as the arm of that fauteuil which held her ; had ^ he suspected I was so skilled in the meaning of gestures , that baud iwould have reposed as quietly as her fa . ce and eyes did .

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    The Escape . 773

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 773, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/41/