"No, you ----," he shouted back, with an oath.
"We'll take you in when you will promise to row," said Benjamin.
"I shall not promise to row; I'll drown first." He turned about to
reach the boat, but just as he was ready to grasp it with his hand,
the rowers pushed it forward out of his reach.
"Will you row now?" shouted Benjamin.
"No; but I will give you a thrashing when I can get at you." And he
continued to swim after the boat, the rowers pushing it forward out of
his reach, whenever he got near enough to seize it. Then Benjamin
would cry out:
"Will you row now, John?" and back the defiant answer would come:
"Never; but I'll throw you into the river if I can get at you."
Then forward the rowers would push the boat beyond his reach. For
twenty minutes this game was played with the miserable fellow in the
water, when one of the number said:
"He is giving out, we must take him in, or he'll drown."
"Well, we don't want to drown him," replied Benjamin; "I guess we
better take him in." Then, turning to John, he continued:
"Say, John, we'll take you in now; you are soaked outside as much as
you were inside," and, stopping the boat, they hauled the poor fellow
in, too much exhausted to throw Benjamin or any one else overboard.
"John!" shouted Benjamin, as they laid him down, dripping wet, on the
bottom of the boat, "it don't pay to drink too much brandy.
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