res they required,
and more; they were happy and glorious. Next day the masthead of
their boat was seen sticking out of the water near Sunday Island.
The pilot schooner went down and hauled the boat to the surface, but
nothing was found in her except the sand-ballast and a bottle of rum.
Her sheet was made fast, and when the squall struck her she had gone
down like a stone. The Isle of Blasted Hopes was useless even as an
asylum for inebriates.

The 'Ecliptic' was carrying coals from Newcastle. The time was
midnight, the sky was misty, and the gale was from the south-east,
when the watch reported a light ahead. The cabin boy was standing on
deck near the captain, when he held a consultation with his mate, who
was also his son. Father and son agreed; they said the light ahead
was the one on Kent's Group, and then the vessel grounded amongst the
breakers. The seamen stripped off their heavy clothing, and went
overboard; the captain and his son plunged in together and swam out
of sight. There were nine men in the water, while the cabin boy
stood shivering on deck. He, too, had thrown away his clothes, all
but the wrist-bands of his shirt, which in his flurry he could not
unbutton. He could not make up his mind to jump overboard. He heard
the men in the water shouting to one another, "Make for the light."
That course led them away from the nearest land, which they could not
see. At length a great sea swept the boy among the breakers, but his
good angel pushed a piece of timber within reach, and he held on to
it until he could feel the ground with his feet; he then let the
timber go, and scrambled out of reach of the angry surge; but when he
came to the dry sand he fainted and fell down. When he recovered his
senses he began to look for shelter; there was a signal station not
far off, but he could not see it. He went away from the pitiless sea
through an opening between low conical hills, covered with dark
scrub, over a pathway composed of drift sand and broken shells. He
found an old hut without a door. There was no one in it; he went
inside, and lay down shivering.

At daybreak a boy, the son of Ratcliff, the signal man, started out
to look for his goats, and as they sometimes passed the night in the
old fowlhouse, he looked in for them. But instead of the goats, he
saw the naked cabin boy. "Who are you?" he said, "and what are you
doing here, and where did you come from?"

"I have been shipwrecked," r