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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"The Headsman The Abbaye des Vignerons"

"
"I feel the strength to remove a mountain! Do we not work for our lives?"
The mariner bent forward, and looked into the other's face. These frantic
and ill-directed efforts came from the Westphalian student.
"Thy star has disappeared," he rejoined, smiling--for Maso had smiled in
scenes far more imposing, than even that with which he was now surrounded.
"She gazes at it still; she thinks of one that loves her, who is
journeying far from the fatherland."
"Hold! Since thou wilt have it so, I will help thee to cast this bale into
the water. Place thine arm thus; an ounce of well-directed force is worth
a pound that acts against itself."
Stooping together, their united strength did that which had baffled the
single efforts of the scholar. The package rolled to the gangway, and the
German, frenzied with excitement, shouted aloud! The bark lurched, and the
bale went over the side, as if the lifeless mass were suddenly possessed
with the desire to perform the evolution which its inert weight had so
long resisted. Maso recovered his footing, which had been deranged by the
unexpected movement, with a seaman's dexterity, but his companion was no
longer at his side.


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