were so stiff that
I could not stand. Two women had Corny between them, and were carrying
her below. I was so delighted to see that there were women on board.
Rectus and I were carried below, too, and three or four rough looking
fellows, who didn't speak a word that we could understand, set to work
at us and took off our clothes, and rubbed us with warm stuff, and gave
us some hot tea and gruel, and I don't know what else, and put us into
hammocks, and stuffed blankets around us, and made me feel warmer, and
happier, and more grateful and sleepy than I thought it was in me to
feel. I expect Rectus felt the same. In about five minutes, I was fast
asleep.

I don't know how long it was before I woke up. When I opened my eyes, I
just lay and looked about me. I did not care for times and seasons. I
knew I was all right. I wondered when they would come around again with
gruel. I had an idea they lived on gruel in that ship, and I remembered
that it was very good. After a while, a man did come around, and he
looked into my hammock. I think from his cap that he was an
officer,--probably a doctor. When he saw that I was awake, he said
something to me. I had seen some Russian words in print, and the letters
all seemed upside down, or lying sideways on the page. And that was
about the way he spoke. But he went and got me a cup of tea, and some
soup, and some bread, and I understood his food very well.

After a while, our captain came around to my hammock. He looked a great
deal better than when I saw him last, and said he had had a good sleep.
He told me that Corny was all right, and was sleeping again, and that
the mate's wife had her in charge. Rectus was in a hammock near me, and
I could hear him snore, as if he were perfectly happy. The captain said
that these Russian people were just as kind as they could be; that the
master of the bark, who could speak English, had put his vessel under
his--our captain's--command, and told him to cruise around wherever he
chose in search of the two boats.

"And did you find them?" I asked.

"No," said he. "We have been on the search now for twenty-four hours,
and can see nothing of them. But I feel quite sure they have been picked
up. They could row, and they could get further into the course of
vessels than we were. We'll find them when we get ashore."

The captain was a hopeful man, but I could not feel as cheerfully as he
spoke. All that I could say was: "Poor Corny!"

He did not a