as they did
us. The joy on both sides when we came within view of one another again,
had something in a manner Divine in it; each was so forgetful of
individual suffering, in tears of delight and sympathy for the people in
the other boat.

I have been wanting to get round to the individual or personal part of my
subject, as I call it, and the foregoing incident puts me in the right
way. The patience and good disposition aboard of us, was wonderful. I
was not surprised by it in the women; for all men born of women know what
great qualities they will show when men will fail; but, I own I was a
little surprised by it in some of the men. Among one-and-thirty people
assembled at the best of times, there will usually, I should say, be two
or three uncertain tempers. I knew that I had more than one rough temper
with me among my own people, for I had chosen those for the Long-boat
that I might have them under my eye. But, they softened under their
misery, and were as considerate of the ladies, and as compassionate of
the child, as the best among us, or among men--they could not have been
more so. I heard scarcely any complaining. The party lying down would
moan a good deal in their sleep, and I would often notice a man--not
always the same man, it is to be understood, but nearly all of them at
one time or other--sitting moaning at his oar, or in his place, as he
looked mistily over the sea. When it happened to be long before I could
catch his eye, he would go on moaning all the time in the dismallest
manner; but, when our looks met, he would brighten and leave off. I
almost always got the impression that he did not know what sound he had
been making, but that he thought he had been humming a tune.

Our sufferings from cold and wet were far greater than our sufferings
from hunger. We managed to keep the child warm; but, I doubt if any one
else among us ever was warm for five minutes together; and the shivering,
and the chattering of teeth, were sad to hear. The child cried a little
at first for her lost playfellow, the Golden Mary; but hardly ever
whimpered afterwards; and when the state of the weather made it possible,
she used now and then to be held up in the arms of some of us, to look
over the sea for John Steadiman's boat. I see the golden hair and the
innocent face now, between me and the driving clouds, like an angel going
to fly away.

It had happened on the second day, towards night, that Mrs. Atherfiel