e
answered, not telling her that he had before merely nibbled a small
piece. In the same way he merely wetted his lips with the liquid,
though he would gladly have taken a cupful.

Another night was coming on. Just before the sun sank beneath the
horizon, Nub took a last look round. Alice glanced up in his face.

"Can you see anything?" she asked in an anxious tone.

"No, noting, Missie Alice. Perhaps to-morrow de boats come," he
answered. "We not despair; we got food and water, and we tank God for
dem."

"I will say my evening prayer," said Alice, kneeling down with her arms
on the hen-coop. Nub reverently placed himself on his knees by her
side, and repeated the words she used.

"I will now sing a hymn," she said, reseating herself on the hen-coop.
From that solitary spot on the desert ocean arose to heaven a sweet hymn
of praise, Nub, who, like many negroes, could sing well, joining with
his voice.

Darkness came down over the deep, shrouding the raft with its sable
canopy. Alice, having slept so much during the day, could not for some
time close her eyes; so Nub did his best to amuse her. She talked to
him not only of the past but of the future, and of the hope of
deliverance. Nub calculated that their stock of provisions would last,
if he could manage to exist without eating more than he had hitherto
done, at least for four or five days; this would give Alice enough to
keep up her strength. But should help not come at the end of that time
he must, he knew, die of hunger; and though she might live a few days
longer, what could she do all alone on the raft? This thought made him
very sad, but he tried to put it from him.

At last Alice fell asleep, and the sea remaining calm, he thought it
best to follow her example, that he might endure his hunger and obtain
the refreshment which sleep would give him.

Another day broke. It was spent almost as the previous one had been.
No sail hove in sight, and the raft floated calmly as at first. He had
thought the loss of the sail a great misfortune, but for the last two
days it would have been of no use except to afford some shelter to
Alice; and perhaps, like other things which people at first look on as
misfortunes, the loss might prove ultimately advantageous.

With Nub's assistance Alice could move about a little on the raft, to
prevent her limbs from becoming benumbed. Frequently she begged him to
let her stand upon the hen-coop, that she might loo