s no comfort to her to
tell her that we should be picked up, unless she could be assured that
the same ship would pick up her father and mother. But we could say
nothing positive about this, of course, although we did all that we
could, in a general way, to make her feel that everything would turn out
all right. She sat wrapped up in her shawl, and seldom said a word. But
her eyes were wandering all over the waves, looking for a boat.

The ship was now quite a long way off, still burning, and lighting up
the tops of the waves and the sky. Just before day-break, her light
suddenly went out.

"She's gone down!" said the captain, and then he said no more for a long
time. I felt very sorry for him. Even if he should be saved, he had lost
his ship,--had seen it burn up and sink before his eyes. Such a thing
must be pretty hard on a captain. Even I felt as if I had lost a friend.
The old "Tigris" seemed so well known to us.

It was now more dismal than ever. It was darker; and although the
burning ship could do us no good, we were sorry to have her leave us.
Nobody said much, but we all began to feel pretty badly. Morning came
slowly, and we were wet and cold, and getting stiff. Besides, we were
all very thirsty, and I, for one, was hungry; but there was no good
reason for that, for it was not yet breakfast-time. Fortunately, after a
while, Corny went to sleep. We were very glad of it, though how she
managed to sleep while the raft was rising and falling and sliding and
sloshing from one wave to another, I can't tell. But she didn't have
much holding on to do. We did that for her.

At last daylight came, and then we began to look about in good earnest.
We saw a top-sail off on the horizon, but it was too far for our raft to
be seen from it, and it might be coming our way or it might not. When we
were down in the trough of the waves we could see nothing, and no one
could have seen us. It was of no use to put up a signal, the captain
said, until we saw a vessel near enough to see it.

We waited, and we waited, and waited, until it was well on in the
morning, and still we saw no other sail. The one we had seen had
disappeared entirely.

We all began to feel miserable now. We were weak and cold and wretched.
There wasn't a thing to eat or drink on the raft. The fire had given no
time to get anything. Some of the men began to grumble. It would have
been better, they said, to have started off as soon as they found out
the fi