which she did with some little
assistance from Hazel.

And so they all depended upon her, whom some of them had been for
killing. And the blood-stained boat glided before the wind.

At two P. M. Fenner jumped suddenly up, and, looking at the sea with
rapture, cried out, "Aha! my boys, here's a beautiful green meadow; and
there's a sweet brook with bulrushes. Green, green, green! Let's have a
roll among the daisies." And in a moment, ere any of his stiff and
wounded shipmates could put out a hand, he threw himself on his back upon
the water, and sunk forever, with inexpressible rapture on his
corpse-like face.

A feeble groan was the only tribute those who remained behind could
afford him.

At three P. M. Mr. Hazel happened to look over the weather-side of the
boat, as she heeled to leeward under a smart breeze, and he saw a shell
or two fastened to her side, about eleven inches above keel. He looked
again, and gave a loud hurrah. "Barnacles! barnacles!" he cried. "I see
them sticking."

He leaned over, and, with some difficulty, detached one, and held it up.

It was not a barnacle, but a curious oblong shell-fish, open at one end.

At sight of this, the wounded forgot their wounds, and leaned over the
boat's side, detaching the shell-fish with their knives. They broke them
with the handles of their knives, and devoured the fish. They were as
thick as a man's finger and about an inch long, and as sweet as a nut. It
seems that in the long calm these shellfish had fastened on the boat.
More than a hundred of them were taken off her weather-side, and evenly
divided.

Miss Rolleston, at Hazel's earnest request, ate only six, and these very
slowly, and laid the rest by. But the sailors could not restrain
themselves; and Prince, in particular, gorged himself so fiercely that he
turned purple in the face, and began to breathe very hard.

That black speck on the horizon had grown by noon to a beetle, and by
three o'clock to something more like an elephant, and it now diffused
itself into a huge black cloud, that gradually overspread the heavens;
and at last, about half an hour before sunset, came a peculiar chill, and
then, in due course, a drop or two fell upon the parched wretches. They
sat, less like animals than like plants, all stretching toward their
preserver.

Their eyes were turned up to the clouds, so were their open mouths, and
their arms and hands held up toward it.

The drops increased in number, and