e had lost her mast, he
could not make out why she had been deserted. He judged by the way she
rolled that she was slightly leaking, and had made some water. "We'll
pump her out by and by, and she will be all right till we get a fair
breeze to return home," he thought to himself. "Perhaps we may carry
her in, and obtain salvage. That would be very fine, better than all
the prize-money I am likely to make for a long time to come." Such were
the ideas that floated through his mind as he returned to the cabin. A
comfortable-looking bed invited him to rest, and rousing up David for a
moment, he made him crawl half asleep into another. Both of them in
half a second were soundly sleeping, and had the tempest again arisen,
they would not probably have awakened then.

Very different would have been the case had Harry been a captain, but
the cares and responsibilities of midshipmen are light, and their
slumbers sound. Hours passed by, when they both started up, hearing a
voice crying out, "Where am I? What has happened? Ah me! ah me!" It
was old Jefferies who spoke. They went to him. He had returned to
consciousness, and now remembered the loss of his grandson. They did
their best to comfort the old man. They felt that they had been
remotely the cause of the lad's death. "No fault of yours, young
gentlemen," he answered to a remark one of them had made; "it was God's
will to call the boy home. We must never murmur at what God chooses to
do. He knows what's best for us. Ah, if you had heard Mr Wesley
preach, as I often have, you'd understand these things better than you
do, perhaps." They were glad to let him talk on, as the doing so seemed
to divert his mind from his grief. He told them much about the great
preacher, and among other things that he was never stopped by weather
from keeping an appointment, and that though wet through, with his high
boots full of water, he would deliver his message of love to an
assembled congregation before he would change his garments.

While they were all asleep the fire had gone out. They relighted it,
and cooked an abundance of their fish, and spread their table with it,
and several other things they had discovered. They little knew how the
time had gone by, and were therefore greatly surprised to find darkness
again coming on. The two lads hurried on deck, followed by old
Jefferies. The sky was still obscured. No land was in sight, and only
two or three sails could