not fail to do as Hixon asked him. He seldom had occasion to
repeat the blessed announcement. The old man got into the habit of
saying to himself whenever he found his anger rising, "Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves me," and his ill-feelings were subdued.

How blessed would be the result if all who read this, and many more,
too, were to act like that rough old sailor.

CHAPTER SIX.

SAVED FROM THE WRECK.

With the exception of the gale spoken of in the last chapter, the
_Primrose_ had enjoyed fine weather for the greater part of the passage.
But dark, heavy clouds now rolled across the sky; the wind blew
fiercely, and the seas rose up in mountainous billows, such as Peter had
never before beheld. The wind, however, was fair, and with her
after-sails furled, and closely-reefed topsails only set, the ship flew
on before it. As Peter stood on deck he watched sea after sea rolling
up astern and threatening to break on board, but with a loud roar, just
as they reached her, their foaming summits came hissing down, and she
glided up the side of a huge billow ahead. For an instant she seemed to
hang on the top of the watery ridge, and then slid down into another
valley, up the opposite side of which she climbed as before.

She had thus run for some distance when the wind dropped, and she lay
rolling in the trough of the still heavy sea. The sky overhead was dark
and lowering, a drizzling rain fell, and the air was oppressive. The
captain and officers looked anxious. They had cause to be so, for
suddenly the wind again rose, now blowing from one quarter, now from
another, and all hands were kept on deck ready to brace round the yards
as might be required. For several days no observation had been taken,
and old Hixon told Peter that he feared the ship had been driven
considerably out of her course.

"Will the captain soon be able to get an observation to steer the right
way?" asked Peter.

"If the sky clears he may, but I have known it to remain like this for
days and weeks together, and though Captain Hauslar is as good a seamen
as I should wish to sail with, he may be out in his reckoning, and there
are some ugly rocks and shoals to the eastward, which on a dark night it
is a hard matter to see till one is right upon them," answered old
Hixon.

After the ship had been knocking about for some days, the wind again
came fair, though somewhat strong, and the captain, anxious to make up
for the long delay, and hopi