nt. Properly managed, the thing is as easy
as going up in a balloon, or going down a coal pit; but our friend
excelled in 'real naked diving.'

[Sidenote: HE DIVES IN 'CLARK'S BIT.']

His first attempt at fetching anything from under water took place when
he was about sixteen years of age. The vessel in which he then sailed
was being painted at 'Clark's Bit,' Castleford, when John accidentally
let his brush fall overboard, and it sank to the bottom. The Captain was
furious for about an hour, when, having handed the lad another brush, he
went into the town. John could not brook the hour's grumbling to which
he had been subjected, and hence, scarcely had the Master left the
vessel, when he threw off his clothes and dived to the bottom of the
'Bit,' a depth of twenty-six feet, and brought up the brush. He hastily
put on his clothes, and when the Master returned, John held up the
brush, and with that comical twinkle of the eye and humorous expression
of the countenance, so common with sailors, said, 'Here's your brush.
Sir.' 'What brush?' asked the Master. 'The brush I lost overboard an
hour ago,' said John. 'That's a lie.' replied the Master, 'how could you
get it?' 'I dived to the bottom and brought it up,' was the lad's
response. Now Clark's Bit, in those days, was supposed to be of fabulous
depth; indeed, the Master, using a common expression, said, 'You can't
have fetched it up from the bottom, for there is no bottom to Clark's
Bit.' John was unabashed by this charge of falsehood, and with honesty
beaming in every feature of his face, he answered with untrembling
tongue, as he handed the brush to the Master, 'Throw it in again. Sir,
and I'll fetch it up.' The Master refused to test the lad's honesty at
the risk of losing his brush. However, several witnesses came forward
and declared they had seen him plunge into the water and bring up the
brush. From that time John was famous in the neighbourhood, as a great
diver.

'At the time of this occurrence,' he writes, 'a number of young
gentlemen were being taught, at a school at Castleford, by the Rev. Mr.
Barnes. They had plenty of money, and I had little enough, and they
would often, for the sake of seeing me dive to the bottom of the "Bit,"
throw in a shilling, and sometimes half-a-crown. To gratify them, and
for the sake of money, I often dived to the bottom, and never, that I
remember, without bringing up the money. I got at last that I would not
go down for less tha