e were a few gulls
floating each on its own image, as if asleep, and one great albatross
soared slowly in the bright sky, as if acting the part of sentinel over
the resting sea.

"How glorious!" exclaimed Robin, as, with flashing eyes, he gazed round
the scarce perceptible horizon.

"How hard to believe," said Sam, in a low voice, "that we may have been
brought here to die."

"But surely you do not think our case so desperate?" said Robin.

"I hope it is not, but it may be so."

"God forbid," responded Robin earnestly.

As he spoke his arm pressed the little bible which he had rescued from
the wreck. Thrusting his hand into his bosom he drew it out.

"Darling mother!" he said, "when she gave me this she told me to consult
it daily, but especially in times of trouble or danger. I'll look into
it now, Sam."

He opened the book, and, selecting the verse that first met his eye,
read: "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and
he bare them and carried them all the days of old."

"That's a grand word for us, isn't it?--from Isaiah," said Robin.

"Well, what do you make of it?" asked Sam, whose religious education had
not been attended to as well as that of his friend.

"That our God is full of love, and pity, and sympathy, so that we have
nothing to fear," said Robin.

"But surely you can't regard that as a message to us when you know that
you turned to it by mere chance," said Sam.

"I do regard it as a special message to us," returned Robin with
decision.

"And what if you had turned up an entirely unsuitable or inapplicable
verse?" said Sam.

"Then I should have concluded that God had no _special_ message for us
just now, but left us to that general comfort and instruction contained
throughout the whole word. When, however, special comfort is sought and
found, it seems to me ungrateful to refuse it."

"But I don't refuse it, Robin," returned Sam; "I merely doubt whether it
is sent to us or not."

"Why, Sam, _all_ the bible was sent to us for comfort and instruction."

"True--true. I have not thought much on that subject, Robin, but I'll
try to believe at present that you are right, for we stand much in need
of strong hope at all events. Here we are, none of us knows how far
from the nearest land, with little food and less water, on a thing that
the first stiff breeze may knock to pieces, without shelter a