ounted on
the poop-deck, with his pipe in his mouth, giving orders to the men,
who were pulling and tugging at big ropes, and trying to be very busy
knocking things about; the pilot stood a little apart from the
captain, pale and moody, having in a single moment destroyed his
prospects for life. I felt very sorry for the poor fellow, though
there was really no excuse for him. Every now and then the captain
turned to him and gave him a broadside of curses, which he bore very
meekly.

In vain the engineer put on additional steam; in vain the captain
shouted "Back!" "Ahead!" "Stop!" We did nothing but stop. It was stop
all the time. As there is no tide in these inland waters, the prospect
was that we would continue to stop as long as the rocks remained
stationary.

All hope of progress being at an end, the engineer slackened down the
fires; the deck-hands went to breakfast, and the passengers went down
below to dress and talk over their misfortune. The sun rose as usual,
and the sky was as clear and the lake as placid as if nothing had
happened. I had been trying all my life to get shipwrecked on a
desolate island; now there seemed a fair prospect of success. The only
difficulty was, that there was no heavy sea to break the vessel to
pieces, and she was too substantial to go to pieces of her own
account. The nearest island was little more than a barren rock. A few
birds wheeled about over it, or sat perched upon its rugged points,
but with that exception I doubt if it furnished a foothold for a
living creature.

After a good breakfast of sausages and veal cutlets, brown bread and
coffee, we again turned out on deck. This time the joyful tidings
reached us from aloft that a Gottenburg steamer was approaching. Soon
the smoke of her chimneys was perceptible from the deck, and in an
hour or so she was alongside. A stout hawser was bent on to her, and
after another hour of pulling and tugging, backing and filling, we
slipped off the rocks, and floated out into the channel. I was
destined, after all, never to be decently shipwrecked. We had suffered
but little injury, and proceeded on our way as quietly as if nothing
had interrupted our course. On our arrival at the next pilot station
the captain put the pilot ashore, with a parting malediction in the
Swedish vernacular.

The next place of importance on our route was the pretty little town
of Motala, at which we stopped for some hours to take in freight and
passengers. Th