he weather would moderate. I had gone
aft, being sent by the cook to obtain the ingredients of a plum-pudding
for the cabin dinner. Not thinking of danger, on my return I ran along
on the lee side of the deck, but before I reached the caboose I saw a
mountain sea rolling up with a terrific roar, and I heard a voice from
aft shout, "Hold on for your lives!" Letting go the basin and dish I
had in my hands, I grasped frantically at the nearest object I could
meet with. It was a handspike sticking in the windlass, but it proved a
treacherous holdfast, for, to my horror, out it came at the instant that
the foaming sea broke on board, and away I was carried amid the whirl of
waters right out through the shattered bulwarks. All hope of escape
abandoned me. In that dreadful moment it seemed that every incident in
my life came back to my memory; but Mary was the chief object of my
thoughts. I knew that I was being carried off into the hungry ocean,
and, as I supposed, there was no human aid at hand to save me, when the
brig gave a violent lee lurch, and before I was borne away from her side
I felt myself seized by the collar of my jacket, and dragged by a
powerful arm, breathless and stunned with the roar of waters in my ears,
into the galley.

The cook, who had retreated within it when the sea struck the brig, had
caught sight of me, and at the risk of his life had darted out, as a cat
springs on her prey, and saved me. I quickly recovered my senses, but
was not prepared for the torrent of abuse which my preserver, Bob
Fritters, poured out on me for having come along on the lee instead of
the weather side of the deck.

Two or three of the watch who had been aft and fancied that I had been
carried overboard, when they found that I was safe, instead of
expressing any satisfaction, joined the cook in rating me for my folly.
Feeling as I suppose a half-drowned rat might do, I was glad to make my
escape below, where, with the assistance of Jim, I shifted into dry
clothes, while he hurried on deck to obtain a fresh supply of materials
for the captain's pudding. Shortly after this the gale abated, and the
brig was again put on her course.

I had been sent aloft one morning soon after daybreak to loose the
fore-royal, when I saw right ahead a range of blue mountains, rising
above the mist which still hung over the ocean. I knew that it must be
the coast of Norway, for which we were bound.

"Land! Land!" I shouted, point