, they continued making the
arrangements which have been described, though they still hoped they
might be seen from the passing ship, which Harry declared to be the
frigate to which he belonged--the _Ariadne_. At last, however, they had
to abandon this hope, as the frigate continued her course, in chase,
apparently, of the mysterious schooner. Unless seen by some other
vessel, Harry and David felt that they must now, humanly speaking,
depend on their own exertions for reaching the shore. Harry rigged a
mast; they next fitted a sail, and with no small satisfaction hoisted
it. By fixing an oar so as to act as a rudder astern, the raft, as soon
as the sail was hoisted, behaved remarkably well, and glided over the
seas with considerable ease and rapidity. Their spirits rose again, for
they fully believed that they should in two or three days reach either
the English or the Irish coast. They had no idea how far to the
westward they had been driven. By degrees the sea went down, which was
very pleasant, but so also did the wind, till it became a perfect calm.
An end was thus put to their hopes of soon reaching the land. However,
they were far more comfortable than they had been for some time. The
afternoon sun shone out brightly, and dried their clothes; and they had
plenty to eat--biscuits, and cooked meat, and cheese and butter, and
figs and raisins, and several other fruits, and some bottles of wine, of
which they wisely partook very sparingly. It, however, did the old man
much good, and he appeared to have recovered both his strength and
spirits. Although well off in many respects, they had, however, a
scarcity of one article, without which they could not hope to prolong
existence. That was water. They could only secure one small cask, and
they saw, therefore, that they must husband the precious liquid with the
greatest care.

They now floated tranquilly on the calm waters, and though they would
far rather have been sailing northward, they were thus enabled to
strengthen the raft, and to prepare for it encountering any more rough
weather which might come on. They had made old Jefferies as comfortable
as they could in the centre of the raft, and they soon had the satis
faction of finding that he had fallen asleep. Having accomplished all
that could be done, they began to chat away as composedly as if nothing
very particular had occurred. They went on, indeed, almost with the
conversation which had been inte