sea
was gorgeous with miles and miles of great ruby dimples: it was
the first glowing smile of southern latitude. The night stole on
so soft, so clear, so balmy, all were loath to close their eyes on
it; the passengers lingered long on deck, watching the Great Bear
dip, and the Southern Cross rise, and overhead a whole heaven of
glorious stars most of us have never seen and never shall see in
this world. No belching smoke obscured, no plunging paddles
deepened; all was musical; the soft air sighing among the sails;
the phosphorescent water bubbling from the ship's bows; the
murmurs from little knots of men on deck subdued by the great
calm: home seemed near, all danger far; Peace ruled the sea, the
sky, the heart: the ship, making a track of white fire on the
deep, glided gently, yet swiftly, homeward, urged by snowy sails
piled up like alabaster towers against a violet sky, out of which
looked a thousand eyes of holy, tranquil fire. So melted the sweet
night away.

"Now carmine streaks tinged the eastern sky at the water's edge,
and that water blushed; now the streaks turned orange, and the
waves below them sparkled. Thence splashes of living gold flew and
settled on the ship's white sails, the deck, and the faces; and,
with no more prologue, being so near the line, up came
majestically a huge, fiery, golden sun, and set the sea flaming
liquid topaz.

"Instant the lookout at the foretop-gallant-mast-head hailed the
deck below.

"'Strange sail! Right ahead!'

* * * * *

"Ah! the stranger's deck swarms black with men!

"His sham ports fell as if by magic, his guns grinned through the
gaps like black teeth; his huge foresail rose and filled, and out
he came in chase.

"The breeze was a kiss from Heaven, the sky a vaulted sapphire,
the sea a million dimples of liquid, lucid gold."

In conclusion, we must pronounce Mr. Reade's merit, in our judgment, to
belong not so much to what he has already done as to what, if life be
allowed him, he is yet to do. All his previous works read like
'studies,' in the light of his last. For "Very Hard Cash" is the
beginning of a new era; it shows the careful hand of the artist doing
justice to the conceptions of genius, in the prime of his vigor, with
all his powers well in hand. The forms of literature change with the
nec