ship, my heart began to sink, and when, a few moments after,
the light suddenly disappeared, despair seized upon me, and I gave my
friend up for lost.

At that moment, strange to say, thoughts of my mother came into my
mind, I remembered her words, "Call upon the Lord, my dear boy, when
you are in trouble." Although I had given but little heed to prayer,
or to my Maker, up to that time, I did pray, then and there, most
earnestly that my messmate might be saved. I cannot say that I had
much hope that my prayer would be answered--indeed I think I had
none,--still, the mere act of crying in my distress to the Almighty
afforded me a little relief, and it was with a good deal of energy that
I threw myself into the first boat that was lowered, and pulled at the
oar as if my own life depended on it.

A lantern had been fastened to the end of an oar and set up in the
boat, and by its faint light I could see that the men looked very
grave. Tom Lokins was steering, and I sat near him, pulling the aft
oar.

"Do you think we've any chance, Tom?" said I.

A shake of the head was his only reply.

"It must have been here away," said the mate, who stood up in the bow
with a coil of rope at his feet, and a boat-hook in his hand. "Hold
on, lads, did anyone hear a cry?"

No one answered. We all ceased pulling, and listened intently; but the
noise of the waves and the whistling of the winds were all the sounds
we heard.

"What's that floating on the water?" said one of the men, suddenly.

"Where away?" cried everyone eagerly.

"Right off the lee-bow--there, don't you see it?"

At that moment a faint cry came floating over the black water, and died
away in the breeze.

The single word "Hurrah!" burst from our throats with all the power of
our lungs, and we bent to our oars till we wellnigh tore the rollicks
out of the boat.

"Hold hard! stern all!" roared the mate, as we went flying down to
leeward, and almost ran over the hen-coop, to which a human form was
seen to be clinging with the tenacity of a drowning man. We had swept
down so quickly, that we shot past it. In an agony of fear lest my
friend should be again lost in the darkness, I leaped up and sprang
into the sea. Tom Lokins, however, had noticed what I was about; he
seized me by the collar of my jacket just as I reached the water, and
held me with a grip like a vice till one of the men came to his
assistance, and dragged me back into the boat. In a few mo