of his multifarious stores of learning. He
related at length stories of wrecks and sufferings at sea; which, though
they had long been in print, were most of them new to these poor fellows.
He told them, among the rest, what the men of the _Bona Dea,_ waterlogged
at sea, had suffered--twelve days without any food but a rat and a
kitten--yet had all survived. He gave them some details of the _Wager,_
the _Grosvenor,_ the _Corbin,_ the _Medusa;_ but, above all, a most
minute account of the _Bounty,_ and Bligh's wonderful voyage in an open
boat, short of provisions. He moralized on this, And showed his
fellow-sufferers it was discipline and self-denial from the first that
had enabled those hungry specters to survive, and to traverse two
thousand eight hundred miles of water, in those very seas; and that in
spite of hunger, thirst, disease and rough weather.

By these means he diverted their minds in some degree from their own
calamity, and taught them the lesson they most needed.

The poor fellows listened with more interest than you could have thought
possible under the pressure of bodily distress. And Helen Rolleston's
hazel eye dwelled on the narrator with unceasing wonder.

Yes, learning and fortitude, strengthened by those great examples
learning furnishes, maintained a superiority, even in the middle of the
Pacific; and not the rough sailors only, but the lady who had rejected
and scorned his love, hung upon the brave student's words. She was
compelled to look up with wonder to the man she had hated and despised in
her hours of ease.

On the sixth day the provisions failed entirely. Not a crust of bread;
not a drop of water.

At 4 P. M. several flying-fish, driven into the air by the dolphins and
catfish, fell into the sea again near the boat, and one struck the sail
sharply, and fell into the boat. It was divided, and devoured raw, in a
moment.

The next morning the wind fell, and, by noon, the ocean became like
glass.

The horrors of a storm have been often painted; but who has described, or
can describe, the horrors of a calm, to a boatload of hungry, thirsty
creatures, whose only chances of salvation or relief are wind and rain?

The beautiful, remorseless sky was one vault of purple, with a great
flaming jewel in the center, whose vertical rays struck, and parched, and
scorched the living sufferers; and blistered and baked the boat itself,
so that it hurt their hot hands to touch it. The beautiful, remo