hip broke away from each
other, and the shipwrecked crew clung desperately to the floating
spars that the waves tossed hither and thither. The greater part of
the ship's company was ingulfed forthwith by the waves or dashed to
pieces against the hard rocks; only three persons were saved--the
merchant and the two children.

Leonidas, fast tied to their girdles, allowed himself to be cast among
the waters. The first who rose on the crest of the foaming waves was
Thomar. He perceived the rock on which a huge mountain of surf,
rushing after him, threatened to dash him to pieces, and, watching his
opportunity, grasped the long dangling roots of a tree which grew out
of a cleft of the rocks and, with a tremendous effort, dragged all
three of them up to it. The wave rolled right over them, burying them
for an instant in deep water; but the next moment the surge rolled
back again, and they were on the rocky coast.

The merchant was more dead than alive, so the children had to drag him
with them for a long way inland, lest the returning surge should carry
them back to sea again. They only ventured to rest when they had
reached a rocky cavity where they could feel sure that they were safe.
Even here the water, which shot up as high as a tower against the
opposing rock, covered them every moment; but they did not feel its
weight.

There they had to remain, crouching closely together, till the
evening. Neither in front nor behind was there any place of refuge,
and it was with a feeling of envy that they looked down upon the
stormy petrels which towards evening began to sit down in long rows on
the edge of the rocks, whither it was impossible for them to follow.

Gradually, however, the storm died away, the sea subsided and grew
smooth, and the place where the shipwrecked group had taken refuge
rose three ells above the surface of the water. Then they could
venture to look around them. The whole shore was strewn with pieces of
timber and mangled corpses. Wreckage and dead bodies were all that the
sea had vomited forth of the rich cargo of the fine ship.

But the merchant did not despair. Making the two children kneel down
beside him, he knelt down in their midst, and made them pray a prayer
of gratitude to Heaven for their marvellous deliverance; and then,
pressing them to his bosom, he sobbed, with the tears in his eyes,
"What do I care, though my ship is lost and all my wares are
submerged, so long as ye remain to me, my pre