Of course, nothing could be done under the circumstances; but we must
wait patiently for the rising of the tide to float us off. So we sat
there in our wet garments until the dead of night, when our boat
gradually lifted herself off and we started again, and finally arrived
at Braman's early in the morning.
The moral of this tale may be summed up in a single word,--TEMPERANCE.
FROM THE PAPERS OF REGINALD RATCLIFFE, ESQ.
In college I was the "Illustrious Lazy." In my professional studies
and avocations, I have been so hard driven, in order to make up for
four idle years, that I am wasted almost to a shadow, and fears are
entertained that I shall wholly vanish into thin air. My physician
talks gravely about my having exhausted my nervous energy, and sends
me to Ratborough, as the place of all others the most favorable for
entire intellectual repose. I am living with an old aunt, Tabitha
Flint, who was wont to rock me, and trot me, and wash my face, in my
helpless infancy, and can hardly yet be convinced that I have outgrown
such endearing assiduities in the twenty-five years that have
intervened. I let her pet me, so far as I find it convenient, and,
indeed, farther, because I feel grateful for the kind feelings of
which I am the object.
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