sight, the only
object ever visible beyond her deck being some wandering tropic bird,
which might be seen hovering on high, watching with keen sight for its
prey.

The surgeon appeared one morning with a grave face, to make his report
to the captain. Several of the steerage passengers were on the sick
list. As the day wore on, others were added to them: some, he feared,
were cases of malignant fever. They were removed to a part of the ship
screened off to serve as an hospital. Nothing else could be done except
to fumigate the "between-decks," that operation rather adding to the
heat than otherwise. The cabin passengers at length became alarmed.

"Oh, dear, what shall we do if there is fever?" exclaimed Mrs Clagget
to her young companions. "We must take care that no one ever comes near
us."

No one was more alarmed than Mr Job Mawson; for, in spite of the heat,
he shut himself up in his cabin, and was afraid of coming in contact
even with the steward, lest he should have passed near any of the sick
emigrants. Mr Paget, on the contrary, was more active than ever; he,
without hesitation, spent many hours of each day visiting those stricken
down by disease, and endeavouring to rouse the spirits of those who had
hitherto escaped. Charles Dicey, in spite of Mrs Clagget's warnings,
accompanied him, and gave every assistance in his power to the surgeon.
Day after day others were added to the numbers already suffering from
fever. One poor woman, the mother of a family, sank beneath it, and it
was a sad spectacle to all on deck as the body, secured in canvas, and
heavily weighted, was committed to the deep. The voice of Captain
Westerway, generally so firm, trembled as he read the funeral service.
Another and another followed. At last the good captain entreated Mr
Paget to perform the painful duty for him. How every one longed for a
breeze to carry the fever-stricken ship out of that inhospitable region!
It was supposed that the disease must have been brought on board, and
had only now developed itself, as the poor woman who had just died had
been ill when she left England.

Emily and May had at first listened to Mrs Clagget's advice, but when
so many women and children became ill, they could no longer refrain from
assisting in nursing them. Fearlessly they sat by the side of the sick,
reading to the elder ones, and trying to soothe and comfort the younger
children. Several children of the first poor woman who