FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117  
118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>   >|  
laid me in the stern-sheets of the boat. "How do you feel?" asked the mate. "God help us, we were looking for you in the wrong direction, till, all at once, I remembered you ought to be to windward, and so at last made you out, a mere speck on the horizon. We had a hard pull to reach you too! At first I thought we should be swamped. But here you are safe. And now, lads, give way lustily." The crew, at these words, put double strength into their oars, and away we sped toward the ship. What a sensation of comfort and security came over me as I felt the planks under me, and heard the waters, which, cheated of their prey, followed roaring in our wake. I looked up toward the mate, who, steering with one hand, was covering me with his jacket with the other. He was doing it, too, as tenderly as a mother wraps her babe. Oh! how full my heart was. I tried to raise myself on my elbow and speak. "Nay! shipmate," he said, placing his hand on my shoulder gently, as if to press me down, "not a word. You need rest: you were three hours in the water." In truth, this little exertion had made me dizzy. I heard his words as in a dream, and sunk back, while all things seemed to whirl around me. I closed my eyes, and presently, in a whisper, the mate said-- "He sleeps. I don't think he could have stood it five minutes longer. Who would have told his mother?" From this time until I woke in my berth, I lay in a state of profound insensibility. They have since told me that on reaching the ship they thought me gone; but that by chafing my limbs, and employing stringent restoratives they recovered me. I soon after sunk into a refreshing sleep, and when I woke in the morning was perfectly well, though weak. It was quite dark, it appears, when we reached the ship, so that if my discovery had come a few minutes later, it is exceedingly doubtful whether or not I could have been saved. Years have passed since then, and I have rehearsed my deliverance a hundred times, yet I always shudder to recall those terrible hours when OVERBOARD IN THE GULF. MY NATIVE ISLE. BY MRS. MARY G. HORSFORD. My native isle! my native isle! Forever round thy sunny steep The low waves curl with sparkling foam And solemn murmurs deep; While o'er the surging waters blue The ceaseless breezes throng, And in the grand old woods awake An everlasting song. The sordid strife and petty cares
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117  
118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

thought

 

native

 

mother

 
minutes
 
waters
 

morning

 
discovery
 

perfectly

 

reached

 

appears


profound
 

longer

 

insensibility

 

restoratives

 

stringent

 
recovered
 

employing

 

reaching

 

chafing

 
refreshing

solemn

 
sparkling
 

murmurs

 

Forever

 

surging

 

everlasting

 

sordid

 
strife
 

ceaseless

 

breezes


throng

 

HORSFORD

 

rehearsed

 

passed

 

deliverance

 

hundred

 

exceedingly

 

doubtful

 

shudder

 

NATIVE


recall

 

terrible

 

OVERBOARD

 

lustily

 

swamped

 

security

 
comfort
 

planks

 

sensation

 

strength