I went up to the berth where the man, who looked as if he had boxing-gloves on, was lying half insensible. I was sure he wanted food. I could not bear that these delectable viands should be wasted, so I resolved to shake him if nothing else would do, and make him eat, if I possibly could. I gave the meat to Tom to hold, and the tumbler to Mrs. Brand, for the yacht pitched a little, then I brought the soup close to him and told him his supper was come.

The smell of food is sweet to the starving. My sailor presently came out of his stupor, raised himself on his elbow, looked into the soup bowl, and his whole countenance lighted up. I began to feed him, and he ate every mouthful; we then cut up the meat and brought him his grog. His great hungry eyes followed us, and with a murmur of satisfaction he opened his mouth for my fork, and went on calmly and deliberately eating and drinking till all was consumed.

Just as he had finished, laid himself down and begun to snore, one of the children reared up its head and cried out, "Oh, please I want some tea, and I want some corn-cakes and some plums and pudding." 'Why, you stingy thing," said Tom to me, "you have not given them half enough to eat. You should have seen the people eat in

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the chief cabin."

I took the little creature up, wrapped her in a shawl, and when I said she should have some more supper she laughed for joy.

We drew the curtains to shut out my sailor, that he might sleep in peace, and we might enjoy ourselves at our ease. My sickness was now so entirely gone that, though the vessel heaved and pitched a good deal, I felt quite well and so hungry, that when Mrs. Brand appeared, with a world of good things, I sat down to make a late supper with Tom in my own cabin, he and I each holding a child, for both were now awake. Mrs. Brand, standing by, pinned the joint of beef with a fork, that it might not bounce off the table, and held the salad bowl in her hand for the same reason.

I had drawn the curtain across my own berth, in which the dead infant lay, and I did not mean to mention its presence to any one, least of all to Mrs. Brand. Yet though we had such cause for joy in the saving of many lives, I felt as if guilty of great heartlessness in eating and enjoying myself, while the little body lay so near to me.

But the occasion was peculiar; Tom was in a genial humour, like his old self, easy and affectionate; the children were in ecstasies over their supper; and Mrs. Brand in high spirits, as was usual when her hands were full, so I ate, and delighted in Tom's talk, and felt the pleasure of success after anxiety.

CHAPTER X.

"The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death."-Tempest.

THAT was a night of considerable fatigue, for as fast as one child fell asleep the other woke and cried, and there were two women who were ill, and I had to go to them. Poor creatures, they did not complain of past suffering, but they evidently had suffered sorely.

My sailor was so quiet that once in passing I opened the curtains of his berth and looked at him ;-sound asleep, eyes shut, mouth open, the pillow black from contact with his hair, and the sheets in the same condition wherever his torn and scorched shirt had come into contact with them.

At last, when all was quiet, and Mrs. Brand was dozing on the settee, Tom came in and asked if I could do anything for the American passenger; he had been very much hurt, but had not complained.

We made him welcome, and I recognised him as the man who had proposed Uncle Rollin's health. He hobbled in with groans of pain. "His feet had been burnt," he said, " by the dreadful heat of the lower deck when he went below with the captain to investigate the cause of the fire."

He had taken off his shoes shortly after, on account of the unbearable heat they retained, and at first the burns had seemed mere trifles, but salt water had got into them and he was suffering agony.

"I have not been able to do as much as I could have wished," he said, "for I am coming over to Europe for my health, so I tried to give as little trouble as possible, for you may suppose we have had a hard time of it."

He had a loud hollow cough. I woke Mrs. Brand, and we did what we could for him, but did not relieve him much.

He had been a passenger on board the burnt ship, and as he sat, propped up with pillows in a corner, he gave us an account of their numbers, by which I found that we had rescued thirty persons, only six of whom, beside the captain, were seamen.

"A queer lot we were," he observed; "those women that you saw in the chief cabin belonged to a trapeze company-'a show,' we call it in the States, and some of them were dancers, some conjurors, and some actors, fairies in a sort of pantomime, which, as far as I can make out, their show partly consisted in. Sallow, stunted young things they were. The superior members of the troupe had gone up to New York, and come home in a steamer: these were following in a merchant ship, and very decently they behaved themselves," he continued; "that old Irishwoman snoring yonder acted mother to

them. She swore at them now and then, but to do her justice she kept them out of harm's way."

"None of the women in the cabin looked young," I said, surprised at this account of their calling.

"No, they wither early, I should judge.

But some are not young;

one is the mother of three strapping girls that are here with her, they dance, and she is a fairy."

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As he spoke like an American, I thought he was one, till he told me that he was of English birth. Though I have lived in the States twenty years," he observed, "and belong to them now both heart and tongue."

In spite of his past fatigues he could neither rest nor be silent, but by little and little, as the night wore away and daylight came in from above, he told us the story of their misfortunes.

"The ship was laden with cotton, and about eight o'clock on Friday evening steam was perceived to be rising from the hatches over the main hold; every minute or two a whiff of light smoke came after it, and fears were entertained that it might be caused by firedamp.

"There was some secresy at first, but the men were sent below to the pumps, I know, and there was some notion of cutting holes over where the cargo was stowed so as to pour down water on it, while letting in as little air as possible; but it seems that if cotton is well flooded, it is liable to swell so as to burst the deck open, and I made out that this plan was given up.

"But in less than an hour," he continued, "things looked so much worse that the captain ordered all hands on deck, and summoned the passengers; he told them that a portion of the cargo certainly had ignited, but that as we were only seventy miles from Cape Clear, he hoped we might make it, and also get the fire under.

"The steerage passengers were at their supper when they were sent for. I heard them as they came up saying what a mighty hot night it was what an uncommonly hot night; he told it all out in two minutes, and began to give his orders to his men instantly. It was a very sudden blow, and not one of those people, man or woman, said a single word.

"Nobody took any further notice of them," he continued: "all hands were set to work to extinguish the fire. Did you ever see a fire?"

66 I never saw one the least like this. A little steam would come puffing out over a spot in the deck not larger than the crown of a man's hat, and then blue flame would hover in it, but not touch the deck. They would put it out directly, and it would appear in another place; wherever it had fed, the place was rotten.

"The crew consisted of thirty, all told. The passengers were twenty, not including these children.

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Excepting myself, Mr. Brandon, Mr. Crayshaw, and the children, they were all steerage passengers. We stood at first a good deal huddled together, but as soon as I had passed to the front I saw that the main hatchway had been lifted, that the bales might be raised by a crane; but the heat and steam seemed to drive the men back, and the bales were so rotten that they would not hold together on the crane hook, but kept falling back with a dull thud; and when this had happened several times, the captain ordered the hatches to be battened down, and all sail to be crowded.

"It was now dark, and, though the heat increased, I did not see that the fire gained on us at all; they kept flooding the deck with water, and throwing it up into the rigging. I was full of hope that it would be kept under, and therefore it was a horrid blow to me when the captain had the lower sails hauled up, and gave orders for unlashing and launching the long boat and the jolly boat. I do not believe this was a quarter of an hour from the time he had battened down the hatches. Well, the jolly boat was stowed inside the long boat; they succeeded in getting her unlashed; we hove to, and she was launched. Brandon and Crayshaw had volunteered to go below and help the men to fetch up biscuit, flour, water, cocoa, and any other provisions they could lay their hands on. I saw them come on deck again all right, and one boat was ready; but when they tried to get the long boat unlashed flames broke out, and before these could be got under she was so damaged that they dared not use her. Those two boats would have held us all.

"An hour at least was spent over those boats. I had volunteered to do what I could, and the captain ordered me to take all the women below, that they might put on their warmest shawls and fetch up their money and what valuables they had. I was to make them keep together, and be ready to bring them up at a signal from him.

"My legs trembled under me as I marshalled them, for I was shocked to hear that he did not think there was any use wasting time over the small boats, and meant to give all his mind to the making of a raft.

"It all seemed so sudden! As I went after the women I shouted to Crayshaw, 'What on earth does it all mean?' He was just flinging off his velvet coat and answered, 'Depend upon it he knows what he is about.' I felt as I suppose a man may, when not thinking he is at all near death, he is told by the surgeons that he has only an hour to live. They were already flinging overboard every spar and plank and spare yard they could lay their hands on to construct a raft as fast as ever they could.

"Never shall I forget how the women tore out and tossed over their things, nor how their tongues went. I helped them to make up their bundles as well as I could, but nobody knew what to save. We did not know what to be at, and before we were called they

would go up again, carrying arm-loads of rubbish, old shawls, old baskets, bandboxes, bundles, and even old shoes.

"I had heard the constant splash and shouting as the materials went over the side, and as I looked over, what would I not have given to be young? A dozen men were working with a will. There was that dandy Crayshaw lashing away, and Brandon as nimble as a cat following out all his directions; for the captain knew that Crayshaw had experience, and had given him the command. They were making it on the lee side, of course, but still it pitched about more than was agreeable. It was a strange sight, but, dear me, what should a young lady know about the making of a raft!"

"How large was it?" I asked.

"How large? well, about five-and-thirty feet long, and rather narrow in proportion. I am amazed when I think how the time appeared to spin on, for it was now eleven o'clock, and I was still standing among the rubbish and luggage of different sorts when Brandon came up to the captain and reported the raft ready. Crayshaw followed in a moment, and the captain said, 'Gentlemen, there is no time to be lost.' 'We are under your orders, captain,' said Brandon. A great burst of smoke came between us, and I did not hear the answer, but I saw that a good many of the women had disappeared; they had gone down again, hoping to save something more, poor souls, and I ran after Brandon, and between us we argued and pushed them up, stumbling as they came with quantities of bedding and boxes, not a particle of which ever was lowered. The change was amazing by this time; the whole place was gleaming with little spurts of flame, but there was a great noise and confusion, screaming of women, and cries of shame. What's up now?' we shouted to Crayshaw, who was kicking the bundles aside as they fell, and pulling the women on. The passengers, he told us, and some of the crew had made a rush for the jolly boat. It was manned by the most able-bodied of the crew; it had dropped astern and disappeared.

6

"When, hours after that we counted out the people left behind, twenty-three were missing; they had stolen away from the ill-fated ship, and no doubt their excuse to themselves was that if they had taken in any more they must have been swamped.

"The captain, however, was quite equal to the occasion, and after swearing at the boat, to relieve his mind, he vowed he didn't see what there was to make such work about. 6 And, Mr. Crayshaw,' said he, 'that is your opinion.' Crayshaw was an American, the only one of the passengers that was American born. He took the captain's meaning instantly, and between them I believe they actually made the women think the raft was safer than the boat.

"Very nasty work it was getting them lowered, and, before this was half done, one of them cried out, Merciful heaven, I forgot the baby!' She had been very good to the orphan children, but the