ard. The rope that attached the
vessel to the quay was cast off, the sails flew out as if by magic, and
the shore began to fall rapidly astern.

It was now, for the first time, that a full sense of what I had done
came over me. I leaned over the stern of the ship, and gazed at my
native shore as it grew fainter in the distance, until the familiar
hills became a mere line of blue on the horizon, and were finally
blotted from my view by the blinding tears that sprang suddenly to my
eyes. Oh! the agony of that moment I shall never forget. The words
that Jack had quoted to me the night before--"Honour thy father and thy
mother"--seemed to be stamped in letters of fire within my brain. I
felt keenly that, in a moment of passionate self-will, I had done that
which would cause me the deepest sorrow all my life.

In that dark hour I forgot all my romantic notions of travel in foreign
lands; I cared not a straw for hunting, or fighting, or wild adventures.
I would have cheerfully given worlds, had I possessed them, to be
permitted to undo the past--to hasten to my dear father's feet, and
implore forgiveness of the evil that I had done. But regret was now
unavailing. The land soon sank below the horizon, and, ere many hours
had passed, our ship was scudding before a stiff breeze and leaping
wildly over the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 4.

"Ho! tumble up there, tumble up! All hands, ahoy! tumble up! Look
alive, lads; there's work to do, my hearties!"

Such were the words, uttered in the most terrifically violent bass
tones, that awoke me on the first morning after I went to sea.
Instantly all the men around me leaped out of their hammocks. They were
all half-dressed, and I noticed that the greater part of them completed
their toilet in the short interval between quitting their hammocks and
gaining the deck. Jack and I had lain down in our clothes, so we were
on deck almost as soon as the others.

Here the most unexpected sights assailed us. It seemed to me as if a
miraculous change had taken place on everybody and everything during the
night. The ship when she had set sail was as untidy and lumbered about
the decks as a merchantman usually is on quitting port. Now everything
was clean, in its place, snugly fastened, and in order. The sails
appeared to have undergone some modification. I fancied, too, that the
masts raked aft a good deal more than they had done, and round the foot
of t