have heard say they are worlds; but how they stop
up is more than I can tell, except God keeps them there."

"God do many things we can't," said Charley. "But if I ask Him, would
He give me some to play wid?"

"No, Charley, He gives us what we want and what is good for us, but He
chooses to keep those stars where they are, for He knows that if He sent
one of them down they would only do us harm. Now, Charley, don't be
asking more questions; just lie down and go to sleep again," and Dick
shut down the lid of the basket.

Charley's questions, however, had set his mind at work, and as he gazed
up in the sky he thought more than he had ever done before of those
wondrous lights which he had always seen there, and yet had troubled
himself so little about. And then he was led to think of the God who
made them and governs their courses, and many things he had heard in his
boyhood came back to his mind.

"Mother used to say He is a kind and loving God, and go I am sure He
will take care of this little chap, and me, too, for his sake."

Dick at length felt very sleepy. He had been afraid to shut his eyes,
for fear of the shark, but he could no longer prevent the drowsiness
creeping over him: he lashed himself therefore to the raft, to escape
the risk of falling off it, and placing his head on the basket, closed
his weary eyelids.

The bright beams of the great red sun rising above the horizon as they
fell on his eyes awoke him, and on looking round he caught sight of the
fin of the shark gliding by a few feet off. The monster's eye was
turned up towards him with a wicked leer, and he believed that in
another instant the savage creature would have made a grab at the raft.
His pole was brought into requisition, and the rapid blows he gave with
it on the water soon made the monster keep at a respectful distance. He
would not shout out, for fear of waking Charley.

The boy slept on for a couple of hours longer, and when he at length
awoke, seemed none the worse for what he had gone through. Dick had cut
up some little bits of meat and biscuit, that he might not have to wait
for breakfast after he awoke. He had on the previous day carefully
dried his clothes and bedding, and given him such food as he required--
the child, indeed, could not have had a better nurse.

Dick calculated that the store of provisions he had stowed away in the
basket and his own pockets would last a week, and he hoped before the
termination o