h sat
by his side fanning his pale cheek--for he, like several of his crew,
had been struck down by fever, and he probably owed his life to her
watchful care. For many days the vessel had lain becalmed on the glassy
ocean under a tropical sun, the excessive heat tending greatly to
increase the sickness on board, three of the crew, besides the second
mate, having already succumbed to it. Day after day the survivors had
been anxiously looking out for the wind to fill the sluggish sails
hanging down against the masts; but each morning they had seen the fiery
sun rise out of the calm ocean and pass across the blue vault of heaven,
to sink again beneath the horizon, suffusing with a ruddy glow the whole
western sky. The night brought relief from the heat, and hope revived;
but when morning returned, again the suffering crew had to endure the
scorching rays of the sun, from which even the shade cast by the sails
afforded them but inadequate shelter. The chips from the carpenter's
bench which had been thrown overboard still lay alongside; while the
creaking of the yards and blocks, and the slight splashing sound as the
vessel moved from side to side by the now scarcely perceptible
undulations of the broad Atlantic, alone broke the silence which,
reigned over the watery expanse on which she floated. Norah--a fair and
beautiful girl, who, though scarcely sixteen summers had passed over her
head, had already the appearance, and what was to her of the greatest
consequence, the calm resolution of more mature age--stopping for a
moment in her employment, looked up with an inquiring glance from her
blue eyes towards the first mate, who had just then, hat in hand,
entered the cabin.

"A bank of clouds has just appeared above the horizon in the sou'-west,
sir, and from the rapid way in which it is rising we shall, if I mistake
not, have the wind before long, and as much as we want of it," he
replied.

"Thank Heaven!" ejaculated the captain. "See all ready for shortening
sail. I must try to come on deck, for we are sadly short-handed."

"Oh! don't attempt it, father," said Norah; "you have scarcely strength
to stand, and Mr Massey and the crew will do all that is necessary."

"Miss Norah is right, sir--stay where you are," said the mate. "I am
inclined to furl everything at once, so as to be prepared for the wind
when it reaches us; it is near the hurricane season in the West Indies,
and they are sometimes felt as far to the