ssed half by the
open sea, half by stiller waters diked in by marshes and sand bars. A
coarse, scanty grass and a few stunted trees with branches bending away
from the sea lived upon them, but nothing else. Over them and over the
marshes and the sand banks circled myriads of great white gulls. Their
harsh, unearthly voices came to us faintly, and increased the desolation
of earth and sky and sea.

To the shell-strewn beach of the outer of the two islets raced long
lines of surf, and between us and it lurked a sand bar, against which
the great rollers dashed with a bull-like roar. The wind drove us
straight upon this bar. A moment of deadly peril and it had us fast,
holding us for the waves to beat our life out. The boat listed, then
rested, quivering through all its length. The waves pounded against its
side, each watery battering-ram dissolving in foam and spray but to give
place to another, and yet it held together, and yet we lived. How long
it would hold we could not tell; we only knew it could not be for long.
The inclination of the boat was not so great but that, with caution, we
might move about. There were on board rope and an axe. With the latter I
cut away the thwarts and the decking in the bow, and Diccon and I made
a small raft. When it was finished, I lifted my wife in my arms and laid
her upon it and lashed her to it with the rope. She smiled like a child,
then closed her eyes. "I have gathered primroses until I am tired," she
said. "I will sleep here a little in the sunshine, and when I awake I
will make you a cowslip ball."

Time passed, and the groaning, trembling timbers still held together.
The wind fell, the sky became blue, and the sun shone. Another while,
and the waves were less mountainous and beat less furiously against the
boat. Hope brightened before us. To strong swimmers the distance to the
islet was trifling; if the boat would but last until the sea subsided,
we might gain the beach. What we would do upon that barren spot, where
was neither man nor brute, food nor water, was a thing that we had not
the time to consider. It was land that we craved.

Another hour, and the sea still fell. Another, and a wave struck the
boat with force. "The sea is coming in!" cried the minister.

"Ay," I answered. "She will go to pieces now."

The minister rose to his feet. "I am no mariner," he said, "but once
in the water I can swim you like any fish. There have been times when I
have reproached the Lor