er
we were leaving behind, the ship's heart hadn't ceased its throb,
throb, to which we had all grown so accustomed in the last few days.

"He's got the child!" exclaimed Sally. "See, he's hauling the little
creature on to his back with one hand, and swimming with the other.
Glorious fellow!"

Yes, there were the two heads bobbing like black corks in the tossing
waves, close together. I pictured so vividly what my sensations would
be, if I were down there, a mere speck in that vast expanse of blue,
that I almost tasted salt water in my mouth, and felt the choking
tingle of it in my lungs.

Then, suddenly the ship's heart ceased to beat; and the unaccustomed
stillness was as startling as an unexpected noise. A boat shot down
from the davits, with several sailors on board; a few seconds later
they were rowing away towards those two bobbing black corks, and I
loved them as they bent to their oars.

I can't remember breathing once, or even winking, until I saw the child
being lifted into the boat, and the man climbing in after. What a shout
went up from the ship! Sally clapped her pretty, dimpled hands, but I
only let my breath go at last, in a great sigh.

There was such a crush that I couldn't see them when they came on
board, but there was more shouting and hurrahing, and men slapped each
other on the shoulder and laughed.

Throb, throb went the machinery again, and there was no sign that
anything out of the monotonous round had happened, except in the
excited way that people talked. Several men we knew paid a visit to the
steerage, and came back with stories which flew about from group to
group in the first-class cabin, and no doubt the second too.

It seemed that the little boy who had fallen into the sea was the only
son of his mother, a widow. They were Swedes, and the woman, who is on
her way to the States to try and find a place as a servant, was quite
prostrated with the agonising suspense she had suffered. As for the
little boy himself, he was not seriously the worse for his experience.
The doctor was with him, and said that he would be as well as ever in a
few hours. A subscription for the mother and child had already been
started among the first-class passengers, and would probably be made up
to quite a good sum.

"But what is going to be done for the one who saved the little boy's
life?" I asked the man who was telling me the news, a Mr. Doremus, who
is a cousin of Mrs. Van der Windt's, very full of