te sails of a
ship, but which proved in reality to be a vast iceberg; and attached to
it and extending a considerable distance to leeward, was a field or very
extensive floe of ice, against which the ship would have run had it not
been discovered in time, and would in all probability instantly have
gone down with every one on board.

In consequence of the extreme darkness it was dangerous to sail either
way, for it was impossible to say what other floes or smaller cakes of
ice might be in the neighbourhood, and we might probably be on them
before they could be seen. We therefore remained hove to. As it was, I
could not see the floe till it was pointed out to me by Derrick.

I was on deck, with my eyes trying to pierce the darkness to leeward,
and fancying that I saw another iceberg rising close to the ship, and
that I heard strange shrieks and cries, when I felt a hand placed on my
shoulder: "Well, lad, what do you think of it?" said a voice which I
recognised as that of Silas Flint.

"I would rather be in a latitude where icebergs do not exist," I
replied. "But how is it, old friend, you seemed to have forgotten me
altogether since we sailed?" I added.

"It is because I am your friend, lad, that I do not pretend to be one,"
he answered in a low tone. "I guessed from the first the sort of chap
you've got for a skipper, and that you'd very likely want my aid; so I
kept aloof; the better to be able to afford it without being suspected,
d'ye see? You lead but a dog's life on board here, Peter, I am afraid."

"It is bad enough, I own," I answered; "but I don't forget your advice
to `grin and bear what can't be cured'; and Mr Bell and some of my
messmates seem inclined to be good-natured."

"Maybe; but you, the son of a gentleman, and, for what I see, a
gentleman yourself, should be better treated," he observed. "If I was
you, I wouldn't stand it a day longer than I could help."

"I would not if I could help it; but I cannot quit the ship," I
answered.

"But you may when you get to Quebec," he remarked. "I wouldn't go back
in her on any account, for many a reason. There's ill luck attends her,
trust to that." What the ill luck was, my friend did not say, nor how
he had discovered it.

Flint spent the night on deck, and during it he talked a good deal about
America, and the independent wild life he led in the backwoods and
prairies. The conversation made a considerable impression on my mind,
and I afterw