An' so I stood in
the bows; an' I don' know ef I thowt o' God first, but I was thinkun
o' my girl that I was troth-plight wi' then, an' a many things, when
all of a sudden we comed upon the hardest ice we'd a-had; an' into it;
an' then, wi' pokun an' haulun, workun along. An' there was a cry goed
up,--like the cry of a babby, 't was, an' I thowt mubbe 't was a somethun
had got upon one o' they islands; but I said, agen, 'How could it?'
an' one John Harris said 'e thowt 't was a bird. Then another man (Moffis
'e's name was) started off wi' what they calls a gaff ('t is somethun
like a short boat-hook), over the bows, an' run; an' we sid un strike,
an' strike, an' we hard it go wump! wump! an' the cry goun up so tarrible
feelun, seemed as ef 'e was murderun some poor wild Inden child 'e 'd
a-found (on'y mubbe 'e would n' do so bad as that: but there 've a-been
tarrible bloody, cruel work wi' Indens in my time), an' then 'e comed
back wi' a white-coat[5] over 'e's shoulder; an' the poor thing was
n' dead, but cried an' soughed like any poor little babby.
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