[Peerpress-xml] " he exclaimed,

[Bartoli Licursi]

Some dear old friend. Nor was
it aught else. Had it not been for that brave stick, I might as well
have stayed at the bottom. Having clutched

hold of it, I felt for some moments almost as if I had been saved.
I experienced no great difficulty in keeping my limbs afloat so long as
I had such a support for my arms, though the
work was irksome enough. Had the sea been perfectly

calm I could have stood it for a long time; perhaps till the tide had
gone out again, and this would have been all I could have desired. But
the sea was not calm, and that altered
the case. There had been a short lull with the smoother sea just as I
returned to the staff, and even this was a fortunate circumstance, as
it gave me time to rest and recover my breath. Only a short
respite it was, and then came wind and rain and rough seas--rougher
than ever. I was first lifted up nearly to the barrel, and then let
down again with a pitch,
and then for some minutes was kept swinging about--the
staff serving as a pivot--like some wonderful

acrobat performing his feats in a gymnasium. I withstood the first
shock, and though it bowled
me about, I held on manfully. I knew I was holding on for
my life, and "needs must;" but I had slight

reason to be satisfied. I felt how near it was to taking me, and I had
gloomy forebodings about the result. Worse

might come after, and I knew that a few struggles like this last would
soon wear me out. What, then, could I do that would enable me to hold
on? In the interval between the great seas, this was my ruling thought.
If I had only been possessed of a rope, I could have tied myself
to the staff; but then a rope was as far away as a boat, or an easy
chair by my uncle's fireside.
It was no use thinking of a rope, nor did I waste time in doing so; but
just at that moment, as if some good spirit had put the idea into my
head, I thought
of something as good as a rope--a _substitute_. Yes, the very thing
came up before my mind, as though Providence had guided me to think of
it. You are impatient t
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