ur bower. I often think they spoiled a splendid
engineer when they made your father a sailor."

Polly laughed at this, and Watty Wilkins tried to laugh, just by way of
keeping up his friend's spirits and being what Baldwin called good
company; but poor Watty could not laugh. He had loved and played with
Ben Trench since ever he could remember, and when he looked at his pale
face and listened to his weak voice, a dread foreboding came over him,
and brought such a rush of feeling to his heart that he was fain to leap
up and spring to the farthest end of the raft, where he fell to hauling
and tightening one of the rope-fastenings with all the energy of his
little body and soul.

"Land ho!" shouted one of the men at that moment from the top of a cask,
which formed the outlook, where, every day and all day, a man was
stationed to watch for a sail or a sign of land.

An electric shock could not have produced greater excitement than these
two words.

"Where away?" exclaimed the captain, leaping up beside the look-out.

"On the port-bow, sir,--there!" pointing eagerly.

"I don't see it--oh--yes--no. It's only a cloud. Who ever heard of the
port-bow of a raft? Bah! your eyes have been squintin'. Not a bit of
it, I see it--low lyin'; why, I see the palms--and I see the nuts--ah,
and the monkeys, no doubt a-eatin' of 'em--hip, hip, hurrah!"

Such were some of the exclamations, ending in a long, deep-toned,
British cheer, with which the discovery of land was greeted.

In a short time all uncertainty was removed, and the land was clearly
made out to be a small coral island with its narrow outlying reef, and a
few cocoa-nut palms waving thereon.

The joy of the shipwrecked crew was excessive--somewhat in proportion to
their previous depression. They shook bands, laughed, cheered, and in
some cases wept, while a few clasped their hands, looked up, and audibly
thanked God.

"You'll soon get ashore," said Polly, laying her hand on Ben Trench's
arm.

"Ay, and the cocoa-nut milk will set you up and make you fat in no
time," added Watty Wilkins.

"So it will," returned Ben, who had not risen like the others; "we'll
have jolly times of it, won't we? Like Robinson Crusoe. Oh! how I wish
that sister Susan was here! She would enjoy it so much. It's an
island, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Edwin Jack, coming forward at the moment, "a coral island,
with plenty of vegetation on it. So cheer up, Ben, we shall soon be
ashore.