the masts of a vessel rising above the
horizon. I pointed them out to my brother who had just come on deck.
He told me to go aloft with a telescope and examine them more minutely.
I then discovered that they were trees growing on a small island,
apparently cocoanuts, or palms of some sort. Beyond, to the south and
west, were several islands of greater elevation, some blue and
indistinct, but others appeared to be covered with trees like the nearer
one, while between us and them extended from north to south a line of
white surf distinctly marked on the blue ocean. On reporting to Harry
what I had seen, he said that the surf showed the existence of a barrier
reef surrounding the islands. "We may find a passage through it, but
sometimes these reefs extend for miles without an opening through them.
A strong current must be setting from the eastward towards it, or we
should not have been drawn so far during the night, for certainly there
was no appearance of an island in that direction at sundown."

We soon had convincing proof that Harry was right in his conjecture.
There could be no doubt that a current was setting us towards the land,
for the trees gradually rose higher and higher above the water, and at
length we could see them from the deck, while the white line of surf
breaking on the reef became more and more distinct. At the same time a
slowly moving, at first scarcely perceptible swell, which Fanny called
the breathing of the ocean, passed ever and anon under the vessel,
lifting her so gently that the sails remained as motionless as before.
It was difficult indeed to discover that there was any movement in the
mirror-like surface of the deep, and yet we could feel the deck rise and
fall under our feet. The awning was rigged, and Mary and Fanny were
seated in their easy-chairs under it, Mary reading aloud while her
sister worked. Nat, who had placed himself near them, cross-legged on a
grating, to listen, with a marline-spike and a piece of rope, was
practising the art of splicing, in which he had made fair progress. "I
say, Ned, I wish you would show me how to work a Turk's head," he
exclaimed.

I went to him and did as he asked me. This made Mary stop reading; and
Fanny, looking out towards the island, remarked, "How near we are
getting. I am so glad, for I want to see a real coral island, and that
of course is one. I suppose we shall anchor when we get close to it,
and be able to go on shore." Harry,