rendered it impossible for the steersman to keep
his course; but, under the belief that there was no change occurring in
the direction of the wind, Ben guided himself by that, and very
properly, as it afterwards proved.

Just before daybreak, he was relieved by Snowball; who entered upon his
watch, at the same time taking his turn at the steering-oar.

Ben had not aroused the negro for this purpose; and he would have
generously remained at his post until morning, had Snowball desired to
prolong his slumbers.

The act of arousing himself was not altogether voluntary on the part of
the negro; though neither was it the doing of his comrade. It was in
consequence of a physical feeling--a cold shivering caused by the damp
sea-fog--that Snowball had been disturbed from his sleep; and which, on
his awaking, kept him for some minutes oscillating in a sort of ague,
his ivories "dingling" against each other with a continuous rattle that
resembled the clattering of some loose bolt in a piece of machinery out
of repair.

It was some time before Snowball could recover his exact equilibrium;
for, of all sorts of climate, that least endurable to the Coromantee
negro is a cold one.

After repeated flopping his arms over his broad chest, and striking
crosswise, until the tips of his fingers almost met upon the spinal
column of his back, Snowball succeeded in resuscitating the circulation;
and then, perceiving it was full time to take his turn at the helm, he
proposed relieving the sailor.

This proposal was agreed to; Ben, before putting himself in a position
for repose, giving Snowball the necessary directions as to the course in
which the _Catamaran_ was to be kept.

In five minutes after, the sailor was asleep; and the sea-cook was the
only one of the Catamarans who was conscious that the craft that carried
them was only a frail structure drifting in mid-ocean hundreds of miles
from land.

Little William was, perhaps, dreaming of his English, and Lilly Lalee of
her African, home; while the sailor, in all probability, was fancying
himself safely "stowed" in the forecastle of a British frigate, with all
sail rightly set, and a couple of hundred jolly Jacks like himself
stretched out in their "bunks" or swinging in their hammocks around him.

During the first hour of his watch, Snowball did not embarrass his brain
with any other idea than simply to follow the instructions of the
sailor, and keep the _Catamaran_ before the wi