as swallowed up with it. And there I was on an
ice-raft, in the middle of the Arctic Sea, without food or shelter,
wrapped in a great black, impenetrable fog, with the prospect of a
lingering death staring me in the face."

* * * * *

The Captain here paused as if to take breath, for he had been talking
very fast, and had grown somewhat excited as he recalled this terrible
scene. The eyes of the children were riveted upon him, so deeply were
they interested in the tale of the shipwreck; and it was some time
before any one spoke.

"Well!" exclaimed William at last, "that was being cast away in the cold
for certain, Captain Hardy. I had no idea it was so frightful."

"Nor I," said Fred, evidently doubting if Captain Hardy was really the
shipwrecked boy; but Alice said not a word, for she was lost in wonder.

"I should not have believed it was you, Captain Hardy," continued
William, "if you had not been telling the story yourself, this very
minute; for I cannot see how you should ever have got out of that
scrape. It's ever so much worse than going into the sea on the seal's
back."

The Captain smiled at these observations of the boys, and said: "It was
a pretty bad scrape to get into, and no mistake; but through the mercy
of Providence I got out of it in the end, as you see; otherwise I
shouldn't have been here to tell the tale; but how I saved myself, and
what became of the rest of the crew, you shall hear to-morrow, for it is
now too late to begin the story. The evening is coming on, and your
parents will be looking for you home; so good by, my dears. To-morrow
you must come down earlier,--the earlier the better, and if there's any
wind we'll have a sail." And now the children once more took leave of
the ancient mariner, with hearts filled with thanks, which they could
never get done speaking, and with heads filled with astonishment that
the Captain should be alive to tell the tale which they had heard.

CHAPTER VI.

The Old Man meets the Little People under Peculiar
Circumstances, and relates to them how the Young Man,
being cast away in the Cold, rescued a Shipmate, and
also other Matters, which, if put into this Title, would
spoil the Story altogether.

[Illustration]

This time Captain Hardy was not to be caught napping, as on the previous
day. Indeed, he was out looking for his young friends even before the
time. "If they don't come soon," said he to hims