p there is a wide
wash of sea between her and the mainland, and she raises her hands in
horror. How is she to get over? There is no boat in sight. Shall
she wade? There is a nervous motion of her fat white hands in the
direction of her gaiters, but she hesitates. The woman who hesitates
is lost: the water grows deeper and deeper every instant; in ten
minutes it will be over her head. A bathing-machine boy comes trotting
his horse through the water, and, backing up by the rock on which the
distressed lady stands, bids her get on. Get on the back of a horrid
bathing-horse! behind the back of a horrid boy! Had she been a
sylph the prospect would have been most untempting, but a
two-hundred-and-fifty-pounder! Nevertheless, the unhappy fair one
begins to prepare for the sacrifice with grief and consternation in
her face. "How can I do it?" her trembling lips whisper, and she looks
about her on the rocks as if to say, "Oh, is there _no_ other way out
of this wretched predicament?" The boy, as he sits astride, is
getting his feet wet by this time: the horse will have to swim for it
presently. Still she hesitates, and throws a shrinking glance over the
vast audience gathered on the sands silently attentive--the band, the
organ-grinder and the balladist all breathlessly awaiting the issue,
no doubt feeling that it would be mockery to indulge in music at such
a moment. Suddenly a bare-headed and shirt-sleeved man is seen to dash
through the water, regardless of danger and of wet trousers, who,
seizing the fat lady round the knees in spite of her screams, dumps
her on the horse's back all in a heap. Saved! saved! Such a giggling
(for joy) has seldom been seen to shake a large assemblage. The
emotion caused by the spectacle of beauty in distress is no doubt a
pain to every masculine mind not hopelessly vitiated by the cynical
tendencies of the age; but the pain produced by the emotion of mirth
at seeing a fellow-creature at a ridiculous disadvantage is greater
when you feel bound not to laugh.

There are four strange caves piercing St. Catharine's Island
completely through from side to side. In rough weather the storming
of the sea through these extraordinary tunnels creates a prodigious
uproar. When the weather is still it is possible to take boat and sail
quite through one of them: at low tide you may walk through. Marine
zoological riches abound in these caverns, which have been for many
years a real treasure-house for naturali