e--short indeed to make reparation for
so bad a life; but still nothing is impossible with God."

"Well, then," replied I, "if you can speak, I wish you would tell me the
truth relative to my father's death, and also about the death of
others--as for my father, I know that you murdered him--for you said so
last night in your sleep."

After a pause, Jackson replied--"I am glad that I did, and that you have
told me so--I wished to make a full confession even to you; for
confession is a proof of repentance. I know that you must hate me, and
will hate my memory, and I cannot be surprised at it; but look at me
now, Frank, and ask your own heart whether I am not more an object of
pity than of hatred. `Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord!' and has not
his vengeance fallen upon me even in this world? Look at me; here I am,
separated from the world that I loved so much, with no chance of ever
joining it--possessed of wealth which would but a few months ago have
made me happy--now blind, crushed to pieces by an avenging God, in whose
presence I must shortly appear to answer for all my wickedness--all my
expectations overthrown, all my hopes destroyed, and all my accumulated
sins procuring me nothing, but, it may be, eternal condemnation. I ask
you again, am I not an object of pity and commiseration?"

I could but assent to this, and he proceeded.

"I will now tell you the truth. I did tell the truth up to the time of
your father and mother's embarkation on board of the brig, up to when
the gale of wind came on which occasioned eventually the loss of the
ship. Now give me a little drink.

"The vessel was so tossed by the storm, and the waves broke over her so
continually, that the between-decks were full of water, and as the
hatches were kept down, the heat was most oppressive. When it was not
my watch, I remained below, and looked out for another berth to sleep
in. Before the cabin bulkheads on the starboard side, the captain had
fitted up a sort of sail-room to contain the spare sails in case we
should require them. It was about eight feet square, and the sails were
piled up in it, so as to reach within two feet of the deck overhead;
though the lower ones were wetted with the water, above they were dry,
and I took this berth on the top of the sails as my sleeping-place. Now
the state-room in which your father and mother slept was on the other
side of the cabin bulkhead, and the straining and rolling of the vessel
ha