mizen shroud, and
held it between my knees that it might shine on the needle, and it was
curious how much warmth came from this lantern. Then I managed to get a
candle, and cut a piece off, and rigged it up with paper inside the
binnacle. This answered for about ten minutes, but finding it was again
flickering, I opened the tin door, and found all the candle had melted
into bright liquid oil; so this makeshift was a failure. However,
another candle was cut, and the door being left open to keep it cool,
with this lame light I worked on bravely, but very determined for the
rest of my sailing days to have the oil bottle always accessible.
Finally the wind blew out the candle, though it was very much sheltered,
and the ship-light almost at the same time also went out suddenly. Then
we lay to, backed the jib, opened the cabin hatch, got out the oil,
thoroughly cleaned the lamp, put in a new wick, and lighted it afresh,
and a new candle in the ship's light; again we started all right once
more, with that self-gratulation at doing all this successfully,--under
such circumstances of wind, sea, and rain,--which perhaps was not more
than due.

What with these things, and reefing several times, and cooking at
intervals, there was so much to do and so much to think about during the
night that the hours passed quickly, and at last some stray streaks of
dawn (escaped before their time perhaps) lighted up a cloud or two above,
and then a few wave-tops below, and soon gave a general grey tint to all
around, until by imperceptible but sure advance of clearness, the vague
horizon seemed to split into land and water, and happily then it was seen
plainly that the Rob Roy had not lost way in the dark.

As soon as there was light enough to read we began to study Shoreham in
the Pilot book, and neared it the while in the water; but though now
opposite the Brighton coast, it was yet too faraway to make out any town,
for we had stood well out to sea in the thunderstorm. All tiredness
passed off with the fresh morning air, and the breeze was now so strong
that progress was steady and swift.

It may be remarked how a coast often appears quite different when you are
fifteen or twenty miles out to sea, from what it does when you stand on
the beach, or look from a row-boat close to the land. So now we were
puzzled to find out Brighton, one's own familiar Brighton, with its dull
half-sided street, neither town nor bathing-town, its beach unwa