as it came down struck the old man on the head.
He would have fallen overboard had not Harry and David seized his coat
and dragged him in.

"Here, pull, masters," cried Tristram, trying to get out both the oars.
In doing so he let one of them go overboard; both would have gone had
not Harry, springing forward, seized the other. But poor Tristram, in
endeavouring to regain the one he had lost, overbalanced himself, and
met the fate his grandfather had just escaped. Harry threw the oar over
to the side on which he had fallen, but the poor lad in vain endeavoured
to clutch it. There was a piercing cry; Harry thought he saw a hand
raised up through the darkness, and then he neither saw nor heard more.

How came it that the boy's cry did not rouse the grandfather? Sad to
say, he lay without moving at the bottom of the boat.

"This is fearful," cried David, feeling the old man's face and hands; "I
am afraid that he is dead, and the poor lad gone too. What are we to
do?"

"Keep the boat's head to the sea as long as we can with one oar, and
then up helm and run before the wind," answered Harry, who knew that
such was the way a big ship would be managed under similar
circumstances. David sat at the helm, and Harry vigorously plied his
oar--now on one side, now on the other, and thus managed to keep the
boat from getting broadside to the sea. It was very hard work, however,
and he felt that, even though relieved by David, it could not be kept up
all night. Several times David felt the old man's face; it was still
warm, but there was no other sign of life. The boat was broad and deep,
or she would very quickly have been turned over. This, however, made
her very heavy to pull, while from the same cause the sea continually
washed into her. At length they agreed that she must be put before the
wind. They waited for a lull, and then getting her quickly round,
hoisted the jib, which had been before taken in, to the end of the
spreet, which they lashed to the stump of the mast. The wind blew as
strong as ever, but the tide having turned there was less sea than
before, and thus away they went down channel, at a far greater rate than
they supposed.

"It is going to be only a summer gale," observed Harry. "When the
morning comes we shall be easily able to rig a fore and aft sail, and
stand in for the shore. The poor, good old man, I am very sorry for
him, and so I am for the boy; but for ourselves it does not so much
m