harming
freedom, and I tied myself to the boom, so as not to be easily jerked
overboard by the waves. Of course it was my firm intention to sleep only
by winks of one eye at a time; but the struggle with Morpheus was, we
suspect, _very_ faint; at any rate no record remained but a few dim
visions that may have flickered in the soft vanishing of consciousness.

Can any person be expected to describe his first feelings as he awakes in
such a bed and finds it broad day? Bright and glorious sun, high up, how
I stared at you! and then a glance to the side, and behold, there is
land--England. Deliberately I rose and gave three hearty cheers--nobody
there to hear, indeed, but myself--no matter, it did good to me to cheer,
and to hear too. Breakfast was soon agoing. Ten hours' sleep had
thoroughly refreshed me, mind and body; but I could not make out what
part of the coast we had hit upon.

It was still about twelve miles distant, and as there were no cliffs in
sight, it could not be the Isle of Wight. My chart told nothing; my
French Pilot-book had woodcut pictures of all the coast, but nothing came
of the search in these; and whether we had drifted east or west of the
Isle of Wight we finally gave up as a question--we must go to the coast
itself and see.

Therefore we steered due north, rapidly nearing the unknown land, and
with a joyous morning, barometer high, wind south, and a coming fine day.
Presently there loomed on the horizon one, and then another, and another,
splendid ships of war. They steamed in line, and I tried to intercept
them to put the query, "Where am I?" Baffled in this, the puzzle was,
"Are they going to Portsmouth or Plymouth?" There were equally good
reasons for either.

At length three towns could be seen, and the pictures of the French
Pilot-book were closely examined, but several plates had each three towns
which would fit the case before me, one as well as the other.
Fortunately we chose the middle one of the three, because it had a little
lighthouse. That on the left we found afterwards was Bognor, which has a
reef of dangerous rocks upon its shore.

A fisherman was in his boat, and I hailed him, "Boat ahoy! What is the
name of that town?"

"Town, sir?"

"Yes; that village right ahead; what do you call it?"

"The village there, sir?"

"Yes; what is its name? It has a name, hasn't it?"

"Oh, yes, certainly, sir, it's got a name."

"Well, what is the name? I don't know where