w eagerly we watched what was being done. She
came towards us. The people in her shouted to us in a strange language.
They were afraid, evidently, of having their boat stove in by the wreck
of the mast. At last they approached us cautiously.

"Come, Clem, we will swim to her," I said. "Catch tight hold of my
jacket; I have got strength enough left in me for that."

We had not far to go, but I found it a tougher job than I expected. It
would have been wiser to have remained till we could have leaped from
the mast to the boat. I was almost exhausted by the time we reached
her, and thankful when I felt Clem lifted off my back, I myself, when
nearly sinking, being next hauled on board. We were handed into the
stern-sheets, where we lay almost helpless. I tried to speak, but could
not, nor could I understand a word that was said. The men at once
pulled back to the ship, and a big seaman, taking Clem under one of his
arms, clambered up with him on deck. Another carried me on board in the
same fashion. The boat was then hoisted up, and the head yards being
braced round, the ship continued her course. Lanterns being brought, we
were surrounded by a group of foreign-looking seamen, who stared
curiously at us, asking, I judged from the tones of their voices, all
sorts of questions, but as their language was as strange to us as ours
was to them, we couldn't understand a word they said, or make them
comprehend what we said.

"If you would give us some hot grog, and let us turn into dry hammocks,
we should be much obliged to you," I cried out at last, despairing of
any good coming of all their talking.

Just as I spoke, an officer with a cloak on came from below, having
apparently turned out of his berth. "Ah, you are English," I heard him
say. "Speak to me. How came you floating out here?"

I told him that our vessel had gone down, and that we, as far as I knew,
were the only survivors of the crew.

"And who is that other boy?"

"The captain's son," I answered.

"Ah, I thought so, by his appearance," said the officer. "He shall be
taken into the cabin. You, my boy, will have a hammock on the lower
deck, and the hot grog you asked for. I'll visit you soon. I am the
doctor of the ship."

He then spoke to the men, and while Clement was carried aft, I was
lifted up and conveyed below by a couple of somewhat rough but not
ill-natured-looking seamen. I was more exhausted than I had supposed,
for on the way