Tale of the fishwife and its sad fate [2]

2.  I capitalize the nouns, in the German (and
    ancient English) fashion.

It is a bleak Day.  Hear the Rain, how he pours, and the Hail, how he rattles; and see the Snow, how he drifts along, and of the Mud, how deep he is!  Ah the poor Fishwife, it is stuck fast in the Mire; it has dropped its Basket of Fishes; and its Hands have been cut by the Scales as it seized some of the falling Creatures; and one Scale has even got into its Eye. and it cannot get her out.  It opens its Mouth to cry for Help; but if any Sound comes out of him, alas he is drowned by the raging of the Storm.  And now a Tomcat has got one of the Fishes and she will surely escape with him.  No, she bites off a Fin, she holds her in her Mouth—­will she swallow her?  No, the Fishwife’s brave Mother-dog deserts his Puppies and rescues the Fin—­which he eats, himself, as his Reward.  O, horror, the Lightning has struck the Fish-basket; he sets him on Fire; see the Flame, how she licks the doomed Utensil with her red and angry Tongue; now she attacks the helpless Fishwife’s Foot—­she burns him up, all but the big Toe, and even she is partly consumed; and still she spreads, still she waves her fiery Tongues; she attacks the Fishwife’s Leg and destroys it; she attacks its Hand and destroys her also; she attacks the Fishwife’s Leg and destroys her also; she attacks its Body and consumes him; she wreathes herself about its Heart and it is consumed; next about its Breast, and in a Moment she is a Cinder; now she reaches its Neck—­He goes; now its Chin —­it goes; now its Nose—­she goes.  In another Moment, except Help come, the Fishwife will be no more.  Time presses—­is there none to succor and save?  Yes!  Joy, joy, with flying Feet the she-Englishwoman comes!  But alas, the generous she-Female is too late:  where now is the fated Fishwife?  It has ceased from its Sufferings, it has gone to a better Land; all that is left of it for its loved Ones to lament over, is this poor smoldering Ash-heap.  Ah, woeful, woeful Ash-heap!  Let us take him up tenderly, reverently, upon the lowly Shovel, and bear him to his long Rest, with the Prayer that when he rises again it will be a Realm where he will have one good square responsible Sex, and have it all to himself, instead of having a mangy lot of assorted Sexes scattered all over him in Spots.

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There, now, the reader can see for himself that this pronoun business is a very awkward thing for the unaccustomed tongue.  I suppose that in all languages the similarities of look and sound between words which have no similarity in meaning are a fruitful source of perplexity to the foreigner.  It is so in our tongue, and it is notably the case in the German.  Now there is that troublesome word VERMAEHLT:  to me it has so close a resemblance—­either real or