"Well, now, by George! maybe that explains the thing.

I've been bothering myself the worst kind to understand something.

You know that I remember being at home in bed, and then I went to sleep somehow; and when I woke up, it was dark as pitch.

I gave a kick to stretch myself, and knocked the lid off of this thing here--a canoe I thought it was; and then I set up and found myself out here in the river.

I took the lid to split into paddles, and I saw on it a plate with the words 'Joseph Middles, aged sixty-four;' and I couldn't imagine how in thunder that ever got on that lid.