Now Mr.
X arrived, faced this same man, looked him in the eye, and emptied this sentence on him, in the most glib and confident way: "Can man boat get here ?" The mariner promptly understood and promptly answered.

I can comprehend why he was able to understand that particular sentence, because by mere accident all the words in it except "get" have the same sound and the same meaning in German that they have in English; but how he managed to understand Mr.X's next remark puzzled me.

I will insert it, presently.
X turned away a moment, and I asked the mariner if he could not find a board, and so construct an additional seat.

I spoke in the purest German, but I might as well have spoken in the purest Choctaw for all the good it did.

The man tried his best to understand me; he tried, and kept on trying, harder and harder, until I saw it was really of no use, and said: "There, don't strain yourself--it is of no consequence." Then X turned to him and crisply said: "MACHEN SIE a flat board." I wish my epitaph may tell the truth about me if the man did not answer up at once, and say he would go and borrow a board as soon as he had lit the pipe which he was filling.
We changed our mind about taking a boat, so we did not have to go.