as to the accuracy of his
prognostics, it would have been solved about the commencement of the
morning watch. At that hour the inconstant breeze began again to die; and,
even before its last breathing was felt upon the flapping canvas, it was
met by counter currents from the west. Our adventurer saw at once that the
struggle was now truly to commence, and he made his dispositions
accordingly. The square sheets of duck, which had so long been exposed to
the mild airs of the south, were reduced to one third their original size,
by double reefs; and several of the more cumbrous of the remaining
articles such as were of doubtful use to persons in their situation, were
cast, without pausing to hesitate, into the sea. Nor was this care without
a sufficient object. The air soon came sighing heavily over the deep from
the north-west, bringing with it the chilling asperity of the inhospitable
regions of the Canadas.

"Ah! well do I know you," muttered Wilder, as the first puff of this
unwelcome wind struck his sails, and forced the little boat to bend to its
power in passing; "well do I know you, with your fresh-water flavour and
your smell of the land! Would to God you had blown your fill upon the
lakes, without coming down to drive many a weary seaman back upon his
wake, and to eke out a voyage, already too long, by your bitter colds and
steady obstinacy!"

"Do you speak?" said Gertrude, half appearing from beneath her canopy, and
then shrinking back, shivering, into its cover again, as she felt the
influence in the change of air.

"Sleep, Lady, sleep," he answered, as though he liked not, at such a
moment, to be disturbed by even her soft and silvery voice.

"Is there new danger?" asked the maiden, stepping lightly from the
mattress, as if she would not disturb the repose of her governess. "You
need not fear to tell me the worst: I am a soldier's child!"

He pointed to the signs so well comprehended by himself, but continued
silent.

"I feel that the wind is colder than it was," she said, "but I see no
other change."

"And do you know whither the boat is going?"

"To the land, I think. You assured us of that, and I do not believe you
would willingly deceive."

"You do me justice; and, as a proof of it, I will now tell you that you
are mistaken. I know that to your eyes all points of the compass, on this
void, must seem the same; but I cannot thus easily deceive myself."

"And we are not sailing for our homes?"