up all night."

"They certainly would," replied the latter, "if called on to do duty;
but they won't be required to work to-morrow, for we keep the Sabbath on
board of our ship as a duty we owe to God, and we find that we are great
gainers in health and strength, while we are no losers of fish by doing
so."

"Ha! the great Captain Scoresby tried that before you, and said that he
found keeping the Sabbath to be good both for body and soul," said the
captain of the _Rainbow_.

"I know he did," replied the other, "and I am trying to follow in
Scoresby's wake."

It was pretty late in the evening before the whalers could tear
themselves away, and when at last they did so, they expressed a
unanimous opinion that it had been the most successful gam they had ever
had in their lives.

Not long after parting company from the whale-ship the _Rainbow_ sailed
into the cold and variable regions south of Cape Horn. Here they
experienced what the men styled "very dirty weather." The skies were
seldom blue, and the decks were never dry, while it became necessary to
keep the stove burning constantly in the cabin, and the berth-ports
almost always shut.

The effect of all this on poor Ben Trench was to injure his health
severely. His cough increased, and it soon became evident that his
complaint, which at first had only threatened to grow worse, had now
become chronic and serious.

"Watty," he said one day, while his friend sat beside his cot reading to
him, "it's of no use shutting one's eyes to facts. I fear that I am now
hopelessly ill, and that I shall never see father or mother or Susan
again in this world."

"O Ben! don't speak like that," said Watty, laying down the book, and
gently taking his friend's thin hand in both of his. "You mustn't do
it. It will only make you worse. When we get out of this horrible
region into the trade winds and the sunshine near the Line, you'll be a
new man. Come now, cheer up, Ben, and don't let your good little nurse
see you with such a sad face."

Polly's step was heard at the moment. She entered with a bowl of soup.

"Here, Ben, this will do you good," she said, handing him the bowl.
"The cook says it's the stuff to stick to your ribs. There now, I can't
stop to give it you, for father wants me, but you're all right when
Watty's by. Are you better?"

"Well, not much," replied Ben with a smile; "but I'm always the better
of seeing your little face. Don't be long of returni