while the spray leaped over her decks in
the furious blast. The scene was grand and sublime. The thunders roared;
the lightnings seemed to hiss in their fury, as they darted through the
moist atmosphere; and the wind, hardly less than a hurricane, howled in
unison with the booming thunderbolts.

At first, on the long swells of the ocean, which a moment before had
been as smooth and glassy as a mirror, thousands of little white-capped
waves gathered, throwing up volumes of fine spray, which was borne away
by the tempest; so that the air was laden with moisture. Though the
squall came heavy in the beginning, it did not attain its full power for
several minutes. The effect even of the onslaught of the tempest was
tremendous, and officers and crew clung to the rigging and the wood-work
of the vessel, fearful that the savage blast would take them bodily from
their feet, and bear them away into the angry ocean.

"Down with the helm!" roared Captain Kendall to the quartermaster, who,
with four of the strongest seamen, had been stationed at the wheel.

The action of the fierce wind upon the vessel's side was powerful enough
to give her steerage-way without any sail, and her head came up to the
gale, so that she took the blast on her port bow. Thus far, the effect
upon the ocean did not correspond with the violence of the tempest; for
even the severest blow does not immediately create a heavy sea. But, if
the tempest continued even for a few minutes, this result was sure to
follow. There is no especial peril in a squall, if the seaman has had
time to take in sail, unless in a heavy sea; but it does not take long
for a hurricane, in the open ocean, to stir up the water to its maddest
fury.

Professor Hamblin was walking up and down in the waist,--a very pretty
type of the squall itself,--when the initial stroke of the tempest came
upon the Josephine. His "stove-pipe" hat, as non-nautical as anything
could be, which he persisted in wearing, was tipped from his head, and
borne over the rail into the sea. This accident did not improve his
temper, and he was on the point of asking the captain to send a boat to
pick up his lost tile, when the full force of the squall began to be
expended upon the vessel. He found himself unable to stand up; and he
reeled to the mainmast, where Professor Stoute was already moored to the
fife-rail.

"Wouldn't you like the boat now, Mr. Hamblin?" chuckled the jolly
professor, hardly able to speak w