n
island, ship, or an iceberg; it would not be pleasant to run our
jib-boom against either of the three."

"What is that, then?" I asked, my sharp eyes observing what I took to
be a high white wall rising out of the sea.

"Down with the helm!" shouted Dick at the top of his voice. "An iceberg
ahead!"

"Brace up the yards!" cried the officer of the watch from aft.

The mast-heads seemed almost to touch the lofty sides of a huge white
mountain as we glided by it.

"In another half-minute we should have been on the berg, if it hadn't
been for you, Charley," said Dick, when we had rounded the mountain, and
were leaving it on our quarter. "I'll back your sharp eyes, after this,
against all on board."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

JONAS WEBB.

We were a long time regaining our lost ground. I remember at length
finding the ship gliding over huge glass-like billows, which came
rolling slowly and majestically, as if moved upwards and onwards by some
unseen power, with deep, broad valleys between them, into which the ship
sinking, their sides alone bounded the view from her deck ahead and
astern. On the right rose however, above them, a high, rocky headland,
which the third mate told Miss Kitty, as she stood on the deck gazing at
the shore, was Cape Horn.

"I could fancy it some giant demigod, the monarch of these watery
realms," she observed. "He looks serene and good-tempered at present;
but how fearful must be these mighty waves when he is enraged, and
fierce storms blow across them."

"You are indeed right, Miss Kitty," he answered; "and for my part, on
such occasions, I prefer giving his majesty a wide berth and keeping out
of sight of his frown. Provided the ship is sound, and the rigging well
set up, we have little dread of these vast waves. A short chopping sea
is far more dangerous. However, we shall soon be round the `Cape,' and
then I hope for your sake we shall have fine weather and smooth water."

She stood for some time holding on to a stanchion, gazing at the scene
so strange to her eyes.

The captain coming on deck to satisfy himself that all was going on
properly, the mate stepped forward to attend to some duty. As the
former's rubicund visage disappeared beneath the companion-hatch, Mr
Falconer returned aft.

"I have been thinking, Edward, that I was wrong to give the reins to my
fancy, as I did just now," said Kitty, in her sweet, artless way. "I
should have remembered that He who made the w