m giving a cheer; but I managed to
keep silence, fearing that my voice might be heard. It was not yet
time. If heard, I should be dragged forth, and sent packing without
ceremony. I therefore lay as still as a mouse, and listened to the
great chain harshly rasping through the iron ring of the hawse-hole.
Harsh as it may have sounded in other ears, it was music to mine at that
moment.

The clicking and rasping both ceased after a while, and then another
sound reached me. This resembled the rushing of a mighty wind, but I
knew it was not that. I knew it was the "sough" of the sea against the
sides of the vessel. It produced a delightful impression upon my mind,
for it told me that _the big ship was in motion_!

"Hurrah! we are off!"

CHAPTER TWENTY.

SEA-SICK.

The continued motion of the vessel, and the seething sound of the water,
which I could hear very plainly, convinced me that we had parted from
the quay, and were moving onward. I felt completely happy; there was no
longer any fear of my being taken back to the farm. I was now fairly
launched upon salt-water, and in twenty-four hours would be out on the
wide Atlantic--far from land, and in no danger either of being pursued
or sent back. I was in ecstasies of delight at the success of my plan.

I thought it rather strange, their starting _in the night_--for it was
still quite dark--but I presumed they had a pilot who knew all the
channels of the bay, and who could take them into the open water just as
well by night as by day.

I was still somewhat puzzled to account for the extreme length of the
night--that was altogether mysterious--and I began to think that I must
have slept during the whole of a day, and was awake for two nights
instead of one. Either that, or some of it must have been a dream.
However, I was too much joyed at the circumstance of our having started,
to speculate upon the strangeness of the hour. It mattered not to me
whether we had set sail by night or by day, so long as we got safely out
into the great ocean; and I laid myself down again to wait until the
time should arrive, when I might safely show myself on deck.

I was very impatient for the arrival of that crisis, and for two special
reasons. One was, that I had grown very thirsty, and longed for a
drink. The cheese and dry crackers had helped to make me so thirsty. I
was not hungry, for part of the provision was still left, but I would
gladly have exchanged it for