still
came from the same quarter, and the weather was cloudy. The sea had
abated its fury, though the billows still rolled high, and the ship had
an ugly motion. During the night, the reefs had been turned out of the
topsails; the jib, flying-jib, and spanker had been set, and the Young
America was making a course east-south-east.

"Sail ho!" shouted one of the crew on the top-gallant forecastle, after
the forenoon watch was set.

"Where away?" demanded the officer of the deck.

"Over the lee bow, sir," was the report which came through the officers
on duty.

The report created a sensation, as it always does When a sail is seen;
for one who has not spent days and weeks on the broad expanse of waters,
can form only an inadequate idea of the companionship which those in one
ship feel for those in another, even while they are miles apart. Though
the crew of the Young America had been shut out from society only about
three days, they had already begun to realize this craving for
association--this desire to see other people and be conscious of their
existence.

After the severe gale through which they had just passed, this sentiment
was stronger than it would have been under other circumstances. The
ocean had been lashed into unwonted fury by the mad winds. A fierce gale
had been raging for full twenty-four hours, and the tempest was
suggestive of what the sailor dreads most--shipwreck, with its long
train of disaster--suffering, privation, and death. It was hardly
possible that such a terrible storm had swept the sea without carrying
down some vessels with precious freights of human life.

The Young America had safely ridden out the gale, for all that human art
could do to make her safe and strong had been done without regard to
expense. No niggardly owners had built her of poor and insufficient
material, or sent her to sea weakly manned and with incompetent
officers. The ship was heavily manned; eighteen or twenty men would have
been deemed a sufficient crew to work her; and though her force
consisted of boys, they would average more than two thirds of the muscle
and skill of able-bodied seamen.

There were other ships abroad on the vast ocean, which could not compare
with her in strength and appointments, and which had not one third of
her working power on board. No ship can absolutely defy the elements,
and there is no such thing as absolute safety in a voyage across the
ocean; but there is far less peril than