to the master.

Ada sat silently in her chair, gazing on the fast-receding shore; and it
is not surprising that her thoughts were fixed on him who was, she felt
sure, even then watching, from its most extreme point, the bark which
bore her away. Her little Maltese maid, Marianna, stood by her side
with tears in her bright eyes, and gazing her last for an indefinite
time on the land of her birth, and where all her affections were
centred, except those which had lately arisen for her young mistress.

The colonel's man, not knowing exactly where he ought to be, being too
dignified, at first, to mix with the men forward, and astonished and
confused at manoeuvres which he could not comprehend, as is generally
the case with his class, always managed to get exactly where he was most
in the way.

"Port a little, you may, my son," said the master to the man at the
helm; "steady, so, keep her. East-and-by-north is the course,"
pronouncing the north with a strong emphasis on the O, and without the
R--as if it were spelt Nothe. "Just get a gentle pull on our
weather-braces, Mr Timmins," to the mate. "The wind's drawing a little
more aft again. We're making her walk along, sir," to the colonel.
"She's not going less than six knots an hour, I'll warrant, which, with
this light wind, is not bad for a craft of her build--she's no clipper,
I own, sir. Heave the log here. I dare say you'll like to be certain,
miss," turning to Ada, as he thought the operation would amuse her.

The second mate and two hands came aft with the log-line and reel.
Bowse took a half-minute glass from the binnacle, and watching till all
the sand had run into one end, held it up before him. The seamen,
meantime, held the reel up before him, so as to allow it to turn easily
in his hands, and the mate, taking the little triangular bit of wood,
called the log-ship, adjusted the peg, and drew off, with a peculiar
jerk of his left hand, several coils of the stray-line, which he held
for a moment over the quarter of the vessel, till he saw that his chief
was ready with the glass, and he then hove it over into the water. The
first part of the line is called the stray-line, and its object is to
allow the log-ship to settle properly in the water, as well as to take
it clear of the eddy. As soon as this part had run out, a cloth mark
ran through the mate's fingers. "Turn," he exclaimed. "Turn," repeated
the master, and turned the glass. The marks rapidly p