us for the stars to shine down at
their will; while the moon presently coming out, the ocean was displayed
in all its vastness to the extreme limits of the horizon.

But, what a different scene was now presented to our gaze to that which
we had looked upon but an hour agone!

Then, the sea, with the exception of a faint throbbing swell as if
proceeding from the deep breathing of Neptune below the surface, seeming
to rise and fall with rhythmical regularity, was calm and still,
unbroken by even the tiniest ripple; now, as far as the eye could reach,
it was all life and motion, the billows leaping up and tossing their
heads, crowned with wreaths of curling spray and growing larger and
larger each moment in volume as they dashed onward madly before the
wind.

The ocean coursers seemed, indeed, like a pack of hounds pursuing the
ship, gnashing their teeth in surf as they missed their prey, and then
gathering themselves up again together to renew the chase, rolling
against each other, boiling in eddies, clashing, dashing, swelling,
breaking in sheets of foam, and presenting one seething mass of moving
waters.

Nothing is so wonderful as this sudden getting up of the sea after a
spell of calm weather.

It is like the sudden uprising of a giant in his wrath--one moment it is
sleeping quietly, the next far and wide it is in a state of mad
commotion, threatening destruction to those who brave the perils of the
deep.

The _Josephine_ sped bravely before the gale, unmindful of the stormy
billows blustering after her, her speed enabling her easily as yet to
outstrip the rollers, although she was only scudding under close-reefed
topsails. She was not too heavily laden; and, being a good sea-boat,
she rose easily on the lift of the waves, almost skimming the surface
like one of Mother Carey's chickens, and jumping, as it were, from
billow to billow as the wind urged her onward.

"If we keep on long like this," observed Mr Marline grimly to the
captain, "we'll soon lose all our easting, and have to begin our voyage
over again!"

"Never mind that," cheerfully answered Captain Miles. "The gale will
only drive us into the Gulf Stream at the worst; and then, we'll have
the assistance of the easterly current there in making our way home,
when we have the chance of bearing up on our course again. We won't
lose much in the end, you'll see."

"All right, we'll see," said Mr Marline. "But, don't you think, sir,
we may be runn