e poop,
alternately looking at the men jumping about the rigging like monkeys
and at the fast-receding shore, which, as soon as the sun set, became
dimmer and dimmer in the distance, until it was at length finally shut
out from my gaze by a wall of mist.

"Fo'c's'le ahoy, there!" sang out Captain Miles presently, when it began
to grow dusk.

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the voice of Moggridge, the boatswain, from
forward.

"Keep a good look out, my man, ahead, or we may be running down some of
those coasting craft inward bound."

"Aye, aye, sir, I'm on the watch myself," sang out Moggridge; but hardly
had he given this answer than, all at once, he cried out suddenly in a
louder tone, "Hard a-port, hard a-port! There's something standing
across our bows."

The man at the wheel immediately put the helm up, letting the head of
the vessel fall off from the wind; but, at the same instant, there came
a sudden crash ahead, followed by a loud yell.

"Gracious heavens!" cried out Captain Miles, rushing forwards to the
forecastle, where several of the hands had also hurried on hearing the
cry of the boatswain--I going after the captain in my turn to see what
was the matter, dreading some fearful disaster.

There were several short and quick exclamations, amidst which I saw, in
the dim light, Moggridge in the act of heaving a rope overboard towards
some dark object in the water.

"Hooray, he's got it and has clutched hold!" I then heard somebody say.
"The line has fallen just over his shoulders, and he has got the bight
of it."

"Haul him in gently!" cried the captain. "Pull easy--so!"

Next I saw a couple of the seamen bending over the side, and in another
moment they helped a dripping figure to scramble on to the deck; when,
as I pressed nearer to see who the rescued person was, I heard a well-
known voice exclaim, in tones of earnest thankfulness and joy:

"Bress de Lor', I'se safe!"

It was Jake, the very last person in the world, most certainly, whom I
could have expected to meet on board the _Josephine_, if I had guessed a
hundred times!

CHAPTER SIX.

THE CAPTAIN'S COW.

"Why, Jake!" I cried out. "How have you contrived to come here?"

"Am dat you, Mass' Tom?" he answered catching sight of me behind the
captain. "Golly, I tole you so; I'se tole you I come 'board ship wid
you somehow or nudder. Who 'peak de trute now, hey? golly, yah, yah,
I'se so berry glad!" and the poor faithful fellow comme