in ordered us to sew
the body of poor Seton up in his blanket, and to heave it overboard. No
one present was able to read the burial service over him, and he who had
so lately performed that office for his shipmates was committed to the
deep without a prayer being said over him. I thought it at the time
very shocking; but I have since learned to believe that prayers at a
funeral are uttered more for the sake of the living than the dead, and
that to those who have departed it matters nothing how or where their
body is laid to rest. Of course we had no shot to fasten to poor
Seton's body. For a short time it floated, and as I watched it with
straining eyes, surrounded by masses of white foam blown from the
summits of the rising waves, I thought of the awful warning he had
lately uttered to me, and felt that I, too, might be summoned whither he
was gone.

The wind and sea were now rapidly rising. In a short time it had
increased very much, and as the waves came rolling up after us, they
threatened every instant to engulf the boat. She had begun to leak also
very considerably, and do all we could, we were unable to keep her free
of water.

"We must lighten the boat, my lads," said the captain. "Don't be
down-hearted, though; we shall soon make the land, and then we shall
find plenty of provisions to supply the place of what we must now cast
away."

Some of the men grumbled at this, and said that they had no fancy to be
put on short allowance, and that they would keep the provisions at all
risks. I never saw a more sudden change take place in any man than came
over the countenance of the captain at this answer. Putting the tiller
into the mate's hand, he sprung up from his seat. "What, you thought I
was changed into a lamb, did you?" he exclaimed in a voice of thunder.
"Wretched idiots! just for the sake of indulging for a few hours in
gluttony, you would risk your own lives and the lives of all in the
boat. The first man who dares to disobey me, shall follow poor Seton
out there--only he will have no shroud to cover him. You, Storr,
overboard with that keg; Johnston, do you help him." The men addressed
obeyed without uttering another word, and the captain went back to the
stern-sheets, and issued his orders as calmly as if nothing had
occurred.

"The captain was like himself, as I have been accustomed to see him," I
thought to myself. "Sorrow for the loss of his vessel and his people
changed him for a ti