about. The tops and rigging
were by this time full of people who had managed to reach them, while
several hanging on by ropes were still floating in the water. A number
of boats from the men-of-war had, however, got up to the spot, and they
were better able to go in among the spars and rigging than was our light
wherry with the sea which was then running. Now that I was safe myself,
I was anxious to learn who among my shipmates had escaped; but then I
had the little boy to look after, who was all wet and shivering, and I
knew too that the news of the accident would soon reach Susan, and that
she would be in a fearful state of alarm if I did not let her know that
I had been preserved. I told the young gentlemen this, and begged them
to let the boatman put me and the child ashore at Ryde, promising him a
guinea if he would do so. They were strangers who had been making a
tour on the island, and, though they were in a hurry to get back to
Portsmouth, they at once consented to do as I wished.

As we had a fair wind we hoisted the sail, and, soon getting away from
the scene of the disaster, quickly reached the hard at Ryde. After
thanking the young gentlemen and the waterman, I had jumped on shore
with the child in my arms, and was stooping down to get hold of the
sheep which I thought ought to be mine, or rather the little boy's, when
the waterman stopped me.

"No, no, master! you are not going to have that animal," he said; "I
want him."

"We should not have stopped to pick up the sheep if it had not been for
the little boy," observed one of the young gentlemen; "and so, as the
sheep's life was saved on his account, the animal should go where he
goes."

The waterman, however, seemed determined to have the sheep.

"Come, master," said I, "I will give you half a guinea, and that is as
much as you will get for the animal."

The waterman still held out.

"Come, you shall have a guinea," said I, getting the money out of my
pocket.

"And we will give five shillings apiece," said one of the young
gentlemen.

"Come, that must settle the matter," said the other, giving the sheep a
lift out of the boat.

Still the man grumbled, wanting to get more, but, handing the guinea to
the young gentlemen, for the little boy being wet to the skin,--as of
course I was, though that did not matter,--I wanted to be off home. I
got hold of the poor sheep and dragged it along, thinking thus to settle
the matter. What had come o