isposed to cherish his intercourse with the Divine Spirit, knelt on the
naked rock and prayed. After this act of duty and devotion, the young
man arose, and endeavoured to turn his attention to the state of things
around him.

The gale still continued with unabated fury. Each instant the water rose
higher and higher on the Reef, until it began to enter within the
crater, by means of the gutters that had been worn in the lava, covering
two or three acres of the lower part of its plain. As for the Rancocus,
though occasionally pitching more heavily than our young man could have
believed possible behind the sea-wall, her anchor still held, and no
harm had yet come to her. Finding it impossible to do any more, Mark
descended into the crater, where it was a perfect lull, though the wind
fairly howled on every side, and got into one of the South American
hammocks, of which there had been two or three in the ship, and of which
he had caused one to be suspended beneath the sort of tent he and poor
Bob had erected near the garden. Here Mark remained all the rest of that
day, and during the whole of the succeeding night. But for what he had
himself previously seen, the roar of the ocean on the other side of his
rocky shelter, and the scuffling of the winds about the Summit, he might
not have been made conscious of the violence of the tempest that was
raging so near him. Once and awhile, however, a puff of air would pass
over him; but, on the whole, he was little affected by the storm, until
near morning, when it rained violently. Fortunately, Mark had taken the
precaution to give a low ridge to all his awnings and tent-coverings,
which turned the water perfectly. When, therefore, he heard the
pattering of the drops on the canvas, he did not rise, but remained in
his hammock until the day returned. Previously to that moment, however,
he dropped into a deep sleep, in which he lay several hours.

When consciousness returned to Mark, he lay half a minute trying to
recall the past. Then he listened for the sounds of the tempest. All was
still without, and, rising, he found that the sun was shining, and that
a perfect calm reigned in the outer world. Water was lying in spots, in
holes on the surface of the crater, where the pigs were drinking and the
ducks bathing. Kitty stood in sight, on the topmost knoll of the Summit,
cropping the young sweet grass that had so lately been refreshed by
rain, disliking it none the less, probably, fro