the Gulf, with all her canvas spread.
Forgetting the distance, and everything save my longing to be free, I
ascended a little eminence, and shouted with all my might, waving my
handkerchief back and forward above my head. I cannot describe the
transport of delight I felt, at perceiving that a flag was hoisted to
the main peak, and soon after lowered,--a recognition of the signal
which floated above me. I even cried aloud with joy; and then, in the
eagerness of my ecstasy, I set off along the shore, seeking out the best
place for a boat to run in.

Never did a ship appear so glorious an object to my eyes; her spars
seemed more taper, her sails more snowy, her bearing prouder, than
ever a vessel owned before; and when at length I could distinguish the
figures of men in the rigging, my heart actually leaped to my mouth with
delight.

At last she backed her topsail, and now I saw shooting out from beneath
her tall sides a light pinnace, that skimmed the water like a sea-bird.
As if they saw me, they headed exactly towards where I stood, and ran
the craft into a little bay just at my feet. A crew of four sailors and
coxswain now jumped ashore, and advanced towards me.

"Are there many of you?" said the coxswain, gruffly, and as though
nothing were a commoner occurrence in life than to rescue a poor forlorn
fellow-creature from an uninhabited rock.

"I am alone, sir," said I, almost bursting into tears, for mingled joy
and disappointment; for I was, I own it, disappointed at the want of
sympathy for my lone condition.

"What ship did you belong to, boy?" asked he, as shortly as before.

"A yacht, sir,--the 'Firefly.'"

"Ah, that 's it; so they shoved you ashore here. That's what comes of
sailing with gentlemen, as they calls 'em."

"No, sir; we landed--a few of us--during a calm--"

"Ay, ay," he broke in, "I know all that,--the old story; you landed to
shoot rabbits, and somehow you got separated from the others; the wind
sprung up meantime; the yacht fired a gun to come off--eh, is n't that
it! Come, my lad, no gammon with me. You 're some infernal young scamp
that was 'had up' for punishment, and they either put you ashore here
for the rats, or you jumped overboard yourself, and floated hither on
a spare hencoop. But never mind,--we 'll give you a run to Quebec; jump
in."

I followed the order with alacrity, and soon found myself on board the
"Hampden" transport, which was conveying the --th Regiment of Foot to