the water rushed completely over it. The brig, pressed by the sails
still set, glided slowly on. Lower and lower she sank; as she did so,
Peter climbed up to the topmast-head, and there he clung. He did his
utmost to escape death, though he was prepared to meet it. He caught
sight for a moment of the boat tossing amid the mass of foaming waters;
when he again looked in the direction he had last seen her, she was
nowhere visible.

In a little while he became conscious that the brig had ceased to sink.

In the east, towards where the faint streaks of returning day appeared
in the sky, the sea tumbled and tossed as wildly as before, but where
the masts of the brig rose above the surface the water was comparatively
calm. The vessel had indeed driven first on the tail or extreme point
of a bank, and then being forced over it, had drifted inside it some
little distance before she had gone down, being then protected from the
fury of the waves by the bank itself. All Peter knew, however, was that
he was clinging to the mast-head of a sunken vessel, that a storm raged
around him, and no human aid was at hand. He had no food, for he had
lost that when thrown from the ladder, and it was some time since he had
eaten; but he had saved his Bible, and he knew that his Father in heaven
would take care of him.

CHAPTER FOUR.

ON BOARD THE PRIMROSE.

As day dawned Peter looked out for the boat, earnestly hoping that the
captain and crew had escaped destruction. It was nowhere to be seen.
Here and there he caught sight of a dark sail just rising above the
horizon, while in the west he could just distinguish a line of low
coast.

How solitary and wretched he would have felt, how ready to give way to
despair, had he not known that, all alone as he was, God his Father was
watching over him.

He had thus clung on for some time to the mast, when he became aware
that the wind had greatly moderated; the waves no longer clashed so
savagely over the sand-bank as before. Gradually the sea became calmer
and calmer; the clouds cleared away; the bright sun shone forth and
dried his wet clothes. He felt hungry, but his strength did not desert
him. He descended to the cross-trees, now above water, and seating
himself, searched in his pocket and discovered two biscuits which he had
put into them when in the cabin and had forgotten. He ate one of the
biscuits and felt revived, and then finding that there was no danger of
falling