d, that acres were
beginning to look verdant and smiling. Two or three months had brought
everything forward prodigiously, and the frequency of the rains in
showers, added to the genial warmth of the sun, gave to vegetation a
quickness and force that surprised, as much as it delighted our young
man.

That night Mark and Betts both slept in the ship. They had a fancy it
might be the last in which they could ever have any chance of doing so,
and attachment to the vessel induced both to return to their old berths;
for latterly they had slept in hammocks, swung beneath the ship-yard
awning, in order to be near their work. Mark was awoke at a very early
hour, by the howling of a gale among the rigging and spars of the
Rancocus, sounds that he had not heard for many a day, and which, at
first, were actually pleasant to his ears. Throwing on his clothes, and
going out on the quarter-deck, he found that a tempest was upon them.
The storm far exceeded anything that he had ever before witnessed in the
Pacific. The ocean was violently agitated, and the rollers came in over
the reef, to windward, with a force and majesty that seemed to disregard
the presence of the rocks. It was just light, and Mark called Bob, in
alarm. The aspect of things was really serious, and, at first, our
mariners had great apprehensions for the safety of the ship. It was
true, the sea-wall resisted every shock of the rollers that reached it,
but even the billows after they were broken by this obstacle, came down
upon the vessel with a violence that brought a powerful strain on every
rope-yarn in the sheet-cable. Fortunately, the ground-tackle, on which
the safety of the vessel depended, was of the very best quality, and the
anchor was known to have an excellent hold. Then, the preservation of
the ship was no longer a motive of the first consideration with them;
that of the pinnace being the thing now most to be regarded. It might
grieve them both to see the Rancocus thrown upon the rocks, and broken
up; but of far greater account was it to their future prospects that the
Neshamony should not be injured. Nor were the signs of the danger that
menaced the boat to be disregarded. The water of the ocean appeared to
be piling in among these reefs, the rocks of which resisted its passage
to leeward, and already was washing up on the surface of the Reef, in
places, threatening them with a general inundation. It was necessary to
look after the security of various a