all--three
slung to the davits on each side, and one over the stern, with a
harpooner to each. The whale lines were spliced and coiled away in the
stern of the boats; the harpoons were spanned, that is, fastened to the
ends of the lines, and various articles were stowed away in the boats,
so that they were all ready to be lowered, and to shove off at a
moment's notice, should a whale appear. The crow's-nest was also got up
to the main topgallant mast-head. It is like a tall cask with a seat in
it, where the officer can take his station and look out far and wide
over the ocean to watch for the spouting of the monsters of the deep.

Next morning, when Archy went on deck, he saw at no great distance from
the ship a vast white towering mass, glittering like alabaster in the
rays of the sun. At the lower part were projecting points and curious
arches, and a deep cavern, with numberless columns and long icicles
hanging from the roof, while the summit was crowned with pinnacles and
towers of every possible shape. From the higher points, as the ice
melted under the rays of the hot sun, came down two or three tiny
cascades of bright water, leaping from ledge to ledge till they fell
with a splash into the calm ocean.

Archy had often heard of icebergs, but he had formed little conception
of what they really were. He stood gazing at it for some minutes, lost
in wonder.

"Well, boy, what do you think of it?" asked Andrew Scollay, who was
passing at the time.

"It's very wonderful," said Archy.

"All God's works are wonderful," observed old Andrew. "You will see
thousands of such bergs as this where we are going, all formed by God's
will, just as He forms everything else in the world; and yet if all the
kings of the earth and their people were to try and build up one like
them, they could not succeed. Now, Archy, I put it to you, whether it
is not wise to try and be friends with such a God--to know that you are
under His care and protection, instead of disobeying Him and daring His
power? The time may come before long when you will feel how helpless
you are to take care of yourself, boy. I have seen stout ships crushed
in a moment between masses of ice, as if they had been made of paper,
and once I saw one of those large bergs come down and overwhelm a
passing ship, not a soul on board escaping. Ay, and I have known
numbers of poor fellows, when their ships have gone done, wandering over
the ice till they have been