rp
things of the congregation.

No electrical illumination could brighten the soul of Mrs. Block.
She moved about the little vessel with a clouded countenance. She was
impressed with the feeling that something was wrong, even now at the
beginning, although of course she could not be expected to know what it
was.

At the bows, and in various places at the sides of the vessel, and
even in the bottom, were large plates of heavy glass, through which the
inmates could look out into the water, and there streamed forward into
the quiet depths of the ocean a great path of light, proceeding from a
powerful searchlight in the bow. By this light any object in the water
could be seen some time before reaching it; but to guard more thoroughly
against the most dreaded obstacle they feared to meet--down-reaching
masses of ice--a hydraulic thermometer, mounted on a little submarine
vessel connected with the Dipsey by wires, preceded her a long distance
ahead. Impelled and guided by the batteries of the larger vessel, this
little thermometer-boat would send back instant tidings of any changes
in temperature in the water occasioned by the proximity of ice. To
prevent sinking too deep, a heavy lead, on which were several electric
buttons, hung far below the Dipsey, ready at all times, day or night,
to give notice if she came too near the reefs and sands of the bottom of
the Arctic Ocean.

The steward had just announced that the first meal on board the Dipsey
was ready for the officers' mess, when Mrs. Block suddenly rushed into
the cabin.

"Look here, Sammy," she exclaimed; "I want you, or somebody who knows
more than you do, to tell me how the people on this vessel are goin'
to get air to breathe with. It has just struck me that when we have
breathed up all the air that's inside, we will simply suffocate, just as
if we were drowned outside a boat instead of inside; and for my part
I can't see any difference, except in one case we keep dry and in the
other we are wet."

"More than that, madam," said Mr. Gibbs, the Master Electrician, who,
in fact, occupied the rank of first officer of the vessel; "if we are
drowned outside in the open water we shall be food for fishes, whereas
if we suffocate inside the vessel we shall only be food for reflection,
if anybody ever finds us."

"You did not come out expectin' that, I hope?" said Mrs. Block. "I
thought something would happen when we started, but I never supposed we
would run short of