and break a proverb.«
    »I judge him by the blue cap,« said the other, »for I cannot see his face. -
Hark, sir - he hallooes to know whether the water be deep.«
    »Nothing like experience in this world,« answered the other - »let him try.«
    The young man, in the meanwhile, receiving no hint to the contrary, and
taking the silence of those to whom he applied as an encouragement to proceed,
entered the stream without farther hesitation than the delay necessary to take
off his buskins. The elder person, at the same moment, hallooed to him to
beware, adding, in a lower tone, to his companion, »Mortdieu, - gossip - you
have made another mistake - this is not the Bohemian chatterer.«
    But the intimation to the youth came too late. He either did not hear or
could not profit by it, being already in the deep stream. To one less alert, and
practised in the exercise of swimming, death had been certain, for the brook was
both deep and strong.
    »By Saint Anne! but he is a proper youth,« said the elder man - »Run,
gossip, and help your blunder, by giving him aid, if thou canst. He belongs to
thine own troop - if old saws speak truth, water will not drown him.«
    Indeed, the young traveller swam so strongly, and buffeted the waves so
well, that, notwithstanding the strength of the current, he was carried but a
little way down from the ordinary landing-place.
    By this time the younger of the two strangers was hurrying down to the shore
to render assistance, while the other followed him at a graver pace, saying to
himself as he approached, »I knew water would never drown that young fellow. -
By my halidome, he is ashore, and grasps his pole! - If I make not the more
haste, he will beat my gossip for the only charitable action which I ever saw
him perform, or attempt to perform, in the whole course of his life.«
    There was some reason to augur such a conclusion of the adventure, for the
bonny Scot had already accosted the younger Samaritan, who was hastening to his
assistance, with these ireful words - »Discourteous dog! why did you not answer
when I called to know if the passage was fit to be attempted? May the foul fiend
catch me, but I will teach you the respect due to strangers on the next
occasion.«
    This was accompanied with that significant flourish with