rrah!" shouted Noddy,--forgetting, in the joy of this discovery, that
death and destruction had reigned on board the Roebuck.

"What is it?" asked Mollie, hardly moved by the gladness of her
companion.

"Land ho!" replied he, as he descended the ladder to the forecastle.

"Where is it?" said she, languidly, as though she did not feel much
interested in the announcement.

"Right over here, about half a mile off."

"It might as well be a thousand miles off; for we can never get there."

"O, yes, we can. We have the boat on deck. I'm afraid you are
discouraged, Mollie."

"I can't help thinking of poor father," said she, bursting into tears
again.

Noddy comforted her as well as he could. He told her she ought not to
repine at the will of God, who had saved her, though he had permitted
her father to be lost; that she ought to be grateful for her own
preservation; and, what seemed to be the strongest argument to him, that
weeping and "taking on" would do no good. He was but a poor comforter,
and only repeated what he had often heard her say in the dark hours of
their former tribulation. Her father was dead, and she could not help
weeping. Whatever were his faults, and however great had been the error
which had brought her to the present extremity, he was her father. In
his sober days he had loved her tenderly and devotedly; and it seemed
like sacrilege to her to dry the tears which so readily and so freely
flowed. They were the natural tribute of affection from a child to a
lost parent.

Noddy did not dare to say all he believed, for he was convinced that the
death of the captain was a blessing to himself and to his daughter. He
was so besotted by the demon that life could henceforth be only a misery
to him, and a stumbling-block to her. It required no great faith for him
to believe, in the present instance, that the good Father doeth all
things well.

The daylight came, and with it the hope of brighter hours. The clouds
were breaking away, and the winds subsided almost as suddenly as they
had risen. Still the waves broke fiercely over the wreck, and it was
impossible to take any steps towards reaching the land, whose green
hills and bright valleys gladdened the heart of the storm-tossed
sailor-boy. With an axe which he found in the forecastle, he knocked
away a couple of the planks of the bulkhead which divided the seamen's
quarters from the hold. He passed through, by moving a portion of the
miscellaneous carg