d it when it gave him so much
trouble, was neither more nor less than one of the ribs of a boat of
larger size than common.

"This is providential, truly!" exclaimed Mark. "Your crooked stick, Bob,
is a part of the frame of the pinnace of which you spoke, and which we
had given up, as a thing not to be found on board!"

"You're right, Mr. Mark, you're right!" answered Bob--"and I most have
been oncommon stupid not to have thought of it, when it came so hard.
And if there's one of the boat's bones stowed in that place, there must
be more to be found in the same latitude."

This was true enough. After working in that dark corner of the hold for
several hours, all the materials of the intended craft were found and
collected in the steerage. Neither Mark nor Betts was a boat-builder, or
a shipwright; but each had a certain amount of knowledge on the subject,
and each well knew where every piece was intended to be put. What a
revolution this discovery made in the feelings of our young husband! He
had never totally despaired of seeing Bridget again, for that would
scarce have comported with his youth and sanguine temperament; but the
hope had, of late, become so very dim, as to survive only as that
feeling will endure in the bosoms of the youthful and inexperienced Mark
had lived a long time for his years; had seen more and performed far
more than usually falls to persons of his age, and he was, by character,
prudent and practical; but it would have been impossible for one who had
lived as long and as well as himself, to give up every expectation of
being restored to his bride, even in circumstances more discouraging
than those in which he was actually placed. Still, he had been slowly
accustoming himself to the idea of a protracted separation, and had
never lost sight of the expediency of making his preparations for
passing his entire life in the solitary place where he and Betts had
been cast by a mysterious and unexpected dispensation of a Divine
Providence. When Bob, from time to-time, insisted on his account of the
materials for the pinnace being in the ship, Mark had listened
incredulously, unconscious himself how much his mind had been occupied
by Bridget when this part of the cargo had been taken in, and unwilling
to believe such an acquisition could have been made without his
knowledge. Now that he saw it, however, a tumultuous rushing of all the
blood in his body towards his heart, almost overpowered him, and the