ng it
away from the decks, letting it gently down upon them, deluging it, so
that our mast lay charred and blackened after its bath of sea-water,
like a mighty serpent stretched along the ship, from stem to stern, and
wrapped loosely in its shrouds. It did us good service later, though not
by defying the winds of heaven, nor spreading forth its snowy sails to
catch the tropic breezes.

Before many hours, it was destined to ride the waves in a shape that was
certainly never intended by those who chose it among many others--taper
and stately in its group of firs--to be the chief adornment of a gallant
ship, and lift a pointing finger to the stars themselves, as an index of
its might, and, with this exception, the hope of those it served--that
of a charred and blackened life raft.

The renewed freshness of the atmosphere, and the joyful upspringing of
the breezes, alone remained, at midnight, to tell the story of the
recent hurricane.

These tropic breezes came like benevolent fairies, to aid our groaning
Titan in his labors.

I can never rid myself for one moment of the idea that an engine really
works, with weary, reluctant strength like a genii slave, waiting
vengefully for the time of retaliation, which sooner or later is sure to
come; or of the visionary notion that a graceful, gliding ship, with
all sails set, receives the same pleasure from its own motion and beauty
that a snow-white swan must do "as down she bears before the gale," with
her white plumage and stately crest.

I think, if ever I am called to give a toast, it shall be "Sail-ships;
may their shadows never be less!" They are, indeed, a part of the
romance of ocean.

The moon was full, in the balmy summer night that succeeded the tempest,
and the ship's quarter-deck was crowded with the passengers of the
Kosciusko, enjoying to the utmost, as it seemed, the delicious,
newly-washed atmosphere, the moonlit heavens and sea, the
exquisitely-caressing softness of the tardily-awakened breezes that
filled the white sails of the vessel, and fluttered the silken scarf of
the maiden, with the same wooing breath of persuasive, subtle strength.

Around Miss Lamarque, the lady of whom Major Favraud had spoken so
admiringly, and to whose kindness he had committed me, a group had
gathered, chiefly of the young, not to be surpassed in any land for
manly bearing, graceful feminine beauty, gayety, wit, and refinement.

There was Helen Oscanyan, fair as a dream of