The children awake and cry out for food. The nurse
turns her languid eyes towards them, but her strength has almost gone;
she even forgets for an instant the meaning of that cry. There is a
struggle going on within her. At last her loving, faithful, and
enduring spirit overcomes for a time the weakness of her body; she
prepares the mess, and feeds the children. She gazes sorrowfully at the
bottle--the last drop of water is consumed. She leans back, her bosom
heaves faintly; the effort has been more than her failing strength would
bear. She turns her eyes towards them; they are the last objects of any
earthly thing she is destined to behold. A dimness comes stealing over
them. Her thoughts are no longer under control, her arms fall by her
side, her head droops on her chest, she has no strength to raise it. In
a few hours more the faithful nurse will have ceased to breathe, and
those young children will be left alone with the dead on the wild waste
of waters.

But, reader, do not for one moment suppose that therefore they are
doomed to perish. There is One above, the eternal, all-powerful God of
goodness and love, who is watching over those helpless infants. His arm
can stretch to the uttermost parts of the earth, and over the great
waters: even now it is put forth to shield them, though we see it not.
Even without a human hand to administer their food, in that open boat on
the wide sea, over which a storm might presently rage, while billows may
rise, threatening to overwhelm them, far away from land or living beings
but themselves, those children are as secure, if so God wills it, as
those who are sleeping on beds of down within palace walls; because,
remember, reader, that He is all-powerful, and He is everywhere. Trust
in Him; never despond; pray to Him for help at all times--in times of
peace and prosperity, in times of danger and difficulty; and oh! believe
that most assuredly He will help and protect you in the way He knows is
best for your eternal happiness.

This is the lesson I would teach; for this is the lesson I have learned
by means of all the difficulties and dangers I have undergone during the
scenes of wild and extraordinary adventure which I have encountered in
my course through life. Often and often, had I not been convinced of
this great truth, I should have yielded to despair; and the longer I
have lived, and the more dangers I have passed through, the more firmly
convinced have I become