violent exercise almost exhausted me, but it carried us some way
into the thicket; when Toby, who had been reaping the benefit of
my labours by following close at my heels, proposed to become
pioneer in turn, and accordingly passed ahead with a view of
affording me a respite from my exertions. As however with his
slight frame he made but bad work of it, I was soon obliged to
resume my old place again. On we toiled, the perspiration
starting from our bodies in floods, our limbs torn and lacerated
with the splintered fragments of the broken canes, until we had
proceeded perhaps as far as the middle of the brake, when
suddenly it ceased raining, and the atmosphere around us became
close and sultry beyond expression. The elasticity of the reeds
quickly recovering from the temporary pressure of our bodies,
caused them to spring back to their original position; so that
they closed in upon us as we advanced, and prevented the
circulation of little air which might otherwise have reached us.
Besides this, their great height completely shut us out from the
view of surrounding objects, and we were not certain but that we
might have been going all the time in a wrong direction.

Fatigued with my long-continued efforts, and panting for breath,
I felt myself completely incapacitated for any further exertion.
I rolled up the sleeve of my frock, and squeezed the moisture it
contained into my parched mouth. But the few drops I managed to
obtain gave me little relief, and I sank down for a moment with a
sort of dogged apathy, from which I was aroused by Toby, who had
devised a plan to free us from the net in which we had become
entangled.

He was laying about him lustily with his sheath-knive, lopping