a mast and a yard, and our shirts
must furnish a sail."

"But how are we to head?" says Jackson.

"Right afore the wind, I suppose," says I; "there'll be no ratching
with the rags we're going to hoist. Right afore the wind," I says;
"and we must trust to God to keep us in view till something heaves in
sight--which is pretty well bound to happen I suppose when there comes
some wind along."

I opened the canvas parcel, and found a matter of thirty biscuits; all
very sweet, good bread. We took each of us a piece, and followed on
with a drink, and then went to work to get our oars in. We all three
wore shirts, and we stripped them off our backs and cut them to lie
open. I had a little circular cushion of stout pins in my pocket, such
as a sailor might carry, and with them we brought the squares of the
shirts together, and seized the corners to one of the oars by yarns
out of an end of painter we cut off, then stepped the other oar, and
secured it with another piece of the painter; and now we had a sort of
sail, the mere sight of which, even, was a small satisfaction to us,
since the shirts being white they must needs make a good mark upon the
water, something not to be missed, unless wilfully, by a passing
vessel.

The morning passed away, and a little after twelve o'clock the water
in the south was darkened by the brushing of a wind, which drove the
hovering masses of vapour before it; and presently they had totally
disappeared, leaving a sky with rents and yawns of blue in places, and
a clear glass-like circle of horizon, upon which, however, there was
nothing to be seen. The boat moved slowly before the wind, which blew
hot as a desert breeze; I steered, and Jackson and Fallows sat near
me, one or the other from time to time getting on to a thwart to take
a view of the ocean, under the sharp of his hand.

In this fashion passed the afternoon. The night came with a deal of
fire in the water, and a very clear moon floating in lagoons of velvet
softness betwixt the clouds. The weather continued quiet; the long
swell made a pleasant cradle of the boat, and the night-wind being
full of dew, breathed refreshingly upon our hot cheeks; whilst our
ears were soothed by the rippling noise of the running waters which
seemed to cool the senses, as the breeze did the body.

It was almost a dead calm, however, at daybreak next morning. The
atmosphere was close and heavy, and there was a strange strong smell
of seaweed, rising o