o sooner heard
that the vessel was in safety, than she gave way to a sorrow which it
was pitiful to witness. They tried to comfort her, but she was not to
be comforted. She had gone off into a sort of trance when the vessel
brought up this morning under Saint Ann's Head.

"The master was thinking about putting to sea when I got on board. He
and all the people were very much surprised to hear that you had
escaped; but the difficulty seemed to be to break the news to your wife.
The master promised not to sail till you appeared, and I promised to
come and hurry you on."

"Thank ye, thank ye, my kind friend!" I exclaimed, shaking him by the
hand. "But my wife--tell me about my wife. How did she bear the sudden
reaction?"

"It did her all the good in the world," he answered cheerfully. "The
old master, who is a canny man, went down into the cabin and began to
talk of the wonderful things which had occurred to his knowledge at
sea--how people had been kept alive floating on a spar for a couple of
days, and how others had swam a dozen miles or more, or been washed from
the deck of one vessel right aboard another, and fallen overboard, and
been picked up floating on a grating, or an oar, by a vessel coming up
astern hours afterwards.

"Suddenly the young lady lifted herself up, showing, that though she had
appeared to be asleep, she had been listening to every word that had
been said.

"`Captain,' said she, `in mercy tell me whether you believe that my
husband's life has been preserved by any of the means you speak of. Do
not deceive me. Do not keep me in doubt.'

"`Not for all the world would I deceive you, young leddy,' said the
master; `I will tell you what I believe to be the truth, that your
husband got floated on shore last night, and that he is not a great way
off, to prove to you that what I say is true.'

"Oh, did not she cry out with joy and thankfulness, and then the old
master told me what he had said, and charged me to come on here as fast
as I could to bring you on board."

My two young friends insisted on accompanying me all the way back to the
vessel, about three miles along the southern shores of the Firth, and
thankful indeed was I for their support. It showed me how an old man
must feel when his strength is failing him, and he has a long journey to
perform. It taught me always to have more compassion for advancing age
than I had before been inclined to feel.

I cannot describe the unspe