its course and hush it to a calm; to Him whose
charities have distilled like the dews of Heaven; who had fed the hungry
and clothed the naked; who had opened a way of escape in the wilderness;
to Him he cried for succor. And at last in utter despair he earnestly
prayed for morning or death. Now and again a huge sea would break over
the little ship, but she rode the waves as beautifully as an ocean
liner. Terribly the night wore away. With the dawn of the morning the
gale began to abate. The Captain lashed the tiller and crept to the
companion way. He opened it, went down, found his children, bruised,
bleeding and terrified. He kissed them, feeling they were now dearer
than ever to him. They asked him where their mother was. He came on deck
and shut them in the cabin without replying. As Captain Godfrey crawled
to his position at the helm, he said to himself, my dear children have
escaped the arrow and tomahawk, the flames at Grimross, the thunder,
lightning and tempest, and even yet they are safe. If it were not for my
children I would prefer to sleep here in death rather than live
elsewhere. I would be near my wife to share a part with her in the
resurrection.
While the Captain was thus mournfully musing, a faint light began to
creep around the eastern horizon. He was so absorbed in thought and in
watching every movement of the sloop that he did not notice the
increasing light. There were rifts in the dark clouds, and the air was
growing moist. The morning light brought with it rain. The sea gradually
grew less and less troubled, and the little vessel rolled and pitched
more easily. The Captain was suddenly startled from his reverie by the
increasing rays of the rising sun, who was now beginning to show his
golden circle above the horizon. He made fast the tiller and went
forward to see what damage had been done through the night. The jib had
been snugly furled before darkness set in. As he stepped forward of the
mainsail, to his great surprise he saw two human forms wedged in under
the windlass and locked in each other's arms. They were tightly wedged
to their knees, between the windlass and the deck. Mrs. Godfrey's
clothes were torn in shreds. She lay with her head across the Indian's
shoulders, her arms were tightly locked around his neck and flowing
black hair.
The Captain had on board the sloop an old axe, which he at once got and
commenced to cut the windlass from its fastenings. A piece of the wood
flew and
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