eign lands.
I expect, Bennie, that you will be half asleep before you have done
reading this letter, for I was a little homesick when I began it, and
that makes any one stupid. Brown Tom saw that I looked, as he said,
"rather watery," and, by way of cheering me, he told me, if that black
cloud in the northeast was coming over us, I would have something worse
than home-sickness before night.
It does look rather like a squall, and I am not ashamed to own that I
should very much prefer to be in my little snug chamber at Bellisle, out
of the reach of harm.
Tell Corty that I have taken a sketch of a schooner, that has kept near
us for the last twenty-four hours, which is just like the one I am in;
and when she sees it I hope, with a little explanation, that she will
know as much about one as I do, though she has never seen any kind of
craft but a canal-boat, and I don't think they are worthy to be named
with any thing but Noah's ark. O, how I want to see you all! I never
will leave home again. Remember me to every thing I love, as your
affectionate cousin,
PIDGIE.
LETTER V.
OLD JACK.
FROM PIDGIE TO BENNIE.
Banks of Newfoundland, July 16th, 1846.
Little did you think, dear Bennie, while sleeping last night quietly at
Bellisle, that your poor cousin Pidgie was in danger of being drowned.
But so it was. The storm, of which Brown Tom had warned me, came on with
tremendous force, and our poor little schooner was tossed about like a
feather on the angry waves. I was so sick, however, from the roughness
of the sea, that I feared little, and realized less, of our critical
situation.
Clarendon says that Captain Cobb showed himself a brave man, and David
was more active than the oldest of the sailors. As for brother himself,
he did wonders. Old Jack told me this morning, that, when we came on
hoard, he thought Clarendon was such a good-for-nothing that his life
was scarcely worth saving; but there was not a man on board who showed
more presence of mind and energetic courage. He really looks better this
morning for his exertions.
Sick as I felt last night, there was one thing struck me forcibly, and
that was, that those who had sworn the loudest, and appeared the boldest
in wickedness since we started, were most frightened, and prayed most
heartily to that Being whose existence they were before hardly willing
to acknowledge. I can give you no better description of the scene than
is found in the Psalm,
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