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Untitled Article
weight and pressure , till I was up to my waist at times ; yet I felt as secure as if I were treading a rock that had stood from the foundation of the earth , and I could calculate the distance I was able to spring to and from the boat to the certainty of an inch ; I was sure I was safe ; and I saw a head above the water , and arms splashing and uplifted , trying to grasp a
mass which was floating by—and I redoubled my efforts three persons besides myself were in the boat , and on seeing this they became as confident and eager as I was . The object was scarcely fifty yards distant , but between us and it lay , collected and aggerated , a thousand smaller and larger masses , concreting as they floated along , and presenting a seemingly impenetrable barrier . But skill is the ductile child of resolution . Under other
circumstances , —circumstances not demanding the gathered-up energies , nor calling upon resolution with so earnest a voice , — the boat might ha . ve been craunched into fragments as the ice whirled in the sawing eddies , which the united efforts of feet , oars , and poles occasioned in forcing the boat through the obstructions ; the crashing and jingling of the broken ice , then its harsh grating against the sides and bottom of the boat , rolled and wheeled over
the water ; the whole river seemed alive with hisses , as if ten thousand millions of voices were subdued into breathing whispers ; and , far above all , rose and rung through the evening sky the shriek of the poor fellow who was clinging in death ' s anticipated agonies to the ice . We set up a shout of encouragement . The shriek was our only direction now ; for darkness and the intervening masses hid him from the view . He was found when no longer capable of uttering a cry , yet still he clung ; his fingers were actually fastened into the ice . With , what eager joy , to each of us , he was taken into the boat ! Life seemed to be utterly extinct . We stripped him , and with my coat , which , as I had thrown it off , was fortunately dry , we rubbed the benumbed body ,
and , oh , warmth—breathing , returned 1 Each man willingly took oft'his outer garments , to wrap round the poor fellow ; and thus we safely carried him to the shore . There were many persons by this time gathered on the river ' s bank ,, with pine-knot torches burning , and one voice among them repeated the inquiring wail , Is it David ? Is it David ? Do tell me if it is David I' She
pressed forward to satisfy her agony of anxiety : —it was not David—David had perished I Reader , do you think I soon forgot that negro woman ' s wail , or that rising shriek which stopped short in her throat , as if it were snapped off by death , with which she dropped among the feet of those who were carrying the rescued man ?
The first part of this incident I have frequently told , as I before said , as a touchstone to try the characters , the dispositions , the modes of thinking of my hearers ; and i obtained the different results , drew forth the self-illustrating remarks , to which 1 have
Untitled Article
The Escape . lib
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1833, page 775, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2626/page/43/
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