ursting from its concealed recess; and
many were actuated by that restlessness which induced them to consider
any change to be preferable to the monotony of existence in compulsory
servitude.

Among the officers, some were oppressed with anxious forebodings of
evil--those peculiar sensations which, when death approaches nearly to
the outward senses, alarm the heart; others experienced no feeling but
that of manly fortitude and determination to die, if necessary, like
men; in others, alas;--in which party, small as it was, the captain was
pre-eminent--fear and trepidation amounted almost to the loss of reason.

Such was the state of the main-deck of the ship at the moment in which
we are now describing it to the reader.

And yet, in the very centre of all this tumult, there was one who,
although not indifferent to the scene around him, felt interested
without being anxious; astonished without being alarmed. Between the
contending and divided parties, stood a little boy, about six years old.
He was the perfection of childish beauty; chestnut hair waved in curls
on his forehead, health glowed on his rosy cheeks, dimples sported over
his face as he altered the expression of his countenance, and his large
dark eyes flashed with intelligence and animation. He was dressed in
mimic imitation of a man-of-war's man--loose trousers, tightened at the
hips, to preclude the necessity of suspenders--and a white duck frock,
with long sleeves and blue collar--while a knife, attached to a lanyard,
was suspended round his neck: a light and narrow-brimmed straw hat on
his head completed his attire. At times he looked aft at the officers
and marines; at others he turned his eyes forward to the hammocks,
behind which the ship's company were assembled. The sight was new to
him, but he was already accustomed to reflect much, and to ask few
questions. Go to the officers he did not, for the presence of the
captain restrained him. Go to the ship's company he could not, for the
barricade of hammocks prevented him. There he stood, in wonderment, but
not in fear.

There was something beautiful and affecting in the situation of the boy;
calm, when all around him was anxious tumult; thoughtless, when the
brains of others were oppressed with the accumulation of ideas;
contented, where all was discontent; peaceful, where each party that he
stood between was thirsting for each other's blood:--there he stood, the
only happy, the only innocent o