t the cakes,
which were under the stern sheets; and the boat rocked and tossed so
violently with the sea which was running, that we were both on our knees
for some little while before we obtained the basket: when we did, to our
surprise, we found that the boat's painter, somehow or another, had
loosened, and that during our search we had drifted nearly one hundred
yards from the ship.

"Mercy on me!--why, we are adrift," exclaimed the woman. "What shall we
do? It's no use hailing, they'll never hear us; look well round for any
boat you may see."

"It is getting so dark that we shall not see far," replied I, not much
liking our position. "Where shall we go to?"

"Go to!--clean out to St. Helen's, if the boat does not fill before we
get there; and further than that too, if I mistake not, with this gale
of wind. We may as well say our prayers, youngster, I can tell you."

"Can't we make sail upon her?" replied I. "Can't we try and pull on
shore somewhere? Had we not better do that, and say our prayers
afterwards?"

"Well said, my little bantam," replied the woman: "you would have made a
good officer if you had been spared; but the fact is, boy, that we can
do nothing with the oars in this heavy sea; and as for the sail, how can
you and I step the mast, rolling and tossing about in this way? If the
mast were stepped, and the sail set, I think I could manage to steer, if
the weather was smoother, but not in this bubble and this gale; it
requires older hands than either you or I."

"Well, then, what must we do?"

"Why, we must sit still and trust to our luck, bale out the boat, and
keep her from swamping as long as we can, and between times we may cry,
or we may pray, or we may eat the cakes and red herrings, or the soft
bread and other articles in the boat."

"Let's bale the boat out first," said I, "for she's half full of water;
then we'll have something to eat, for I feel hungry and cold already,
and then we may as well say our prayers."

"Well, and I tell you what, we'll have something to drink, too, for I
have a drop for Jem, if I could have got on board. I promised it to
him, poor fellow, but it's no use keeping it now, for I expect we'll
both be in Davy's locker before morning."

The woman took out from where it was secreted in her dress, a bladder
containing spirits; she opened the mouth of it, and poured out a portion
into one of the milk-cans; having drunk herself, she handed it to me,
but not f