"So it seems you got him safe to land, where you could weigh him."
"And measure him. I forgot I was talkin' to a lawyer," said the old man laughing. "Yes, I didn't think much how long he was at the time, I guess! He came in as handsome as ever you saw anything done — just slipped himself over the gunwale so — and duv under one of the th'arts, and druv his nose through the bottom of the boat."
"Kept it there, I hope?"
"Ha, ha! Not so fast but there came in a'most water enough to float him again by the time we got to land. He was a power of a fellow!"
"And the 'Bessie' don't float?"
"No; she's laid up with three broken ribs."
"No other boat on hand?"
"There's a little punt out there, that Hild' goes a fishin' in — that'd carry two or three people. But it wouldn't take the hull on ye."
"There's the sloop's boat."
"She leaks," said the miller. "She wants to be laid up as bad as the 'Bessie.'"