lower extremities up in the air at least two feet, so that he appeared to
be trying to swim on dry land.

For a moment he was puzzled to account for this remarkable happening;
but as his head cleared a bit, and the stars ceased to shoot before his
mental vision, he began to get an idea as to what had happened.

Apparently the fellows who had painted the farmer's pigs on the other
night must have entered his place from the woods, and through this gap
in the fence.

Old Peleg had remembered, and anticipating another invasion sooner or
later, he had succeeded in arranging some sort of ingenious trap on the
spot.

In jumping Paul had set off the trigger, with the consequence that a
noose had instantly tightened around his ankles, and a hogshead partly
filled with stones, starting to roll down the slope, had drawn his legs
upward.

Well, at any rate there he was, clinging to the grass, and with an unseen
force pulling at his elevated feet, so that he was helpless to assist
himself.

It was very funny, no doubt, but Paul hardly felt like laughing, just
then. He tried to wriggle around so as to get at the loop, in the hope
that he might loosen the same; but all his efforts were wasted.

Old Peleg had builded better than he expected when he set that trap in
which to catch his tormentors.