of the deepest admiration and love. Alice and Poopy, out of
sheer sympathy, had fallen in love with him too, at first sight; so that
his horrible death (as they had supposed), coupled with his unexpected
restoration and revival through their united exertions, drew them still
closer to him, and created within them a sort of feeling that he must,
in common reason and justice, regard himself as their special property
in all future time. When, therefore, they saw him wink, and heard him
sigh, the gush of emotion that filled their respective bosoms was quite
overpowering. Corrie gasped in his effort not to break down; Alice wept
with silent joy as she continued to chafe the man's limbs; and Poopy
went off into a violent fit of hysterical laughter, in which her "hee,
hees" resounded with terrible shrillness among the surrounding cliffs.

"Now, then, let's to work again with a will," said Corrie. "What d'ye
say to try punching him?"

This question he put gravely, and with the uncertain air of a man who
feels that he is treading on new and possibly dangerous ground.

"What is punching?" inquired Alice.

"Why, _that_," replied the boy, giving a practical and by no means
gentle illustration on his own fat thigh.

"Wouldn't it hurt him?" said Alice, dubiously.

"Hurt him! hurt the Grampus!" cried Corrie, with a look of surprise;
"you might as well talk of hurting a hippopotamus. Come, I'll try."

Accordingly, Corrie tried. He began to bake the seaman, as it were, with
his fists. As the process went on he warmed to the work, and did it so
energetically, in his mingled anxiety and hope, that it assumed the
character of hitting rather than punching--to the dismay of Alice, who
thought it impossible that any human being could stand such dreadful
treatment.

Whether it was owing to this process, or to the action of nature, or to
the combined efforts of nature and his friends, that Bumpus owed his
recovery, we cannot pretend to say; but certain it is, that, on Corrie's
making a severer dab than usual into the pit of the seaman's stomach, he
gave a gasp and a sneeze, the latter of which almost overturned Poopy,
who chanced to be gazing wildly into his countenance at the moment. At
the same time he involuntarily threw up his right arm, and fetched
Corrie such a tremendous backhander on the chest that our young hero was
laid flat on his back, half stunned by the violence of the fall, yet
shouting with delight that his rugged friend