A jolly steamboat captain with more girth than height was asked if he had ever had any very narrow escapes.
"Yes," he replied, his eyes twinkling; "once I fell off my boat at the mouth of Bear Creek, and, although I'm an expert swimmer, I guess I'd be there now if it hadn't been for my crew. You see the water was just deep enough so's to be over my head when I tried to wade out, and just shallow enough" - he gave his body an explanatory pat - "so that whenever I tried to swim out I dragged bottom."
