p, and am I to suppose, assuming
she is haunted, that a ghost, which I have always read and heard of as
an essence, has in its shadowy being such quality of _muscle_ as would
enable it to turn that heavy man over from his side on to his back? No,
no, thought I! depend upon it, either he is alive and may presently come
to himself, or else in some wonderful way the fire in thawing him has so
wrought in his frozen fibres as to cause him to turn.

Presently his left leg, that was slightly bent towards the furnace,
stretched itself out to its full length, and my ear caught a faint
sound, as of a weak and melancholy sigh. Gracious heaven, thought I, he
_is_ alive! and with less of terror than of profound awe, now that I saw
there was nothing of a ghostly or preternatural character in this
business, I approached and bent over him. His eyes were still shut, and
I could not hear that he breathed; there was not the faintest motion of
respiration in his breast nor stir in the hair, that was now soft, about
his mouth. Yet, so far as the light would suffer me to judge, there was
a complexion in his face such as could only come with flowing blood,
however languid its circulation, and putting this and the sigh and the
movement of the leg together, I felt convinced that the man was alive,
and forthwith fell to work, very full of awe and amazement to be sure,
to help nature that was struggling in him.

My first step was to heat some brandy, and whilst this was doing I
pulled open his coat and freed his neck, fetching a coat from the cabin
to serve as a pillow for his head. I next removed his boots and laid
bare his feet (which were encased in no less than four pairs of thick
woollen stockings, so that I thought when I came to the third pair I
should find his legs made of stockings), and after bathing his feet in
hot water, of which there was a kettleful, I rubbed them with hot brandy
as hard as I could chafe. I then dealt with his hands in the like
manner, having once been shipmate with a seaman who told me he had seen
a sailor brought to by severe rubbing of his extremities after he had
been carried below supposed to be frozen to death, and continued this
exercise till I could rub no longer. Next I opened his lips and, finding
he wanted some of his front teeth, I very easily poured a dram of brandy
into his mouth. Though I preserved my astonishment all this while, I
soon discovered myself working with enthusiasm, with a most passionate