e schooner lay over so much that it was
impossible for the men to stand on the deck. At times it seemed as if
she were thrown on her beam-ends; but the good yacht was buoyant as a
cork, and she rose again from every fresh blast like an unconquerable
warrior.

"It seems to me that the masts will be torn out of her," said Temple to
the Captain, as he grasped the brass rail that surrounded the
quarterdeck, and gazed upward with some anxiety.

"No fear o' her," said the Captain, turning the quid of tobacco in his
cheek; "she's a tight boat, an' could stand a heavier sea than this. I
hope it'll blow a wee thing harder."

"Harder!" exclaimed Fred.

"You must be fond of wind, Captain," observed Grant with a laugh.

"Oo ay, I've no objection to wund."

The Captain said this, as he said everything else, more than half
through his nose, and very slowly.

"But do you not think that more wind would be apt to carry away our
top-masts, or split the sails?" said Temple.

"It's not unlikely," was the Captain's cool reply.

"Then why wish for it?" inquired the other in surprise.

"Because we're only thirty miles from the coast of Norway, and if the
wund holds on as it's doin', we'll not make the land till dark. But if
it blows harder we'll get under the shelter of the Islands in daylight."

"Dark!" exclaimed poor Sam Sorrel, who, being a bad sailor, was very
sick, and clung to the lee bulwarks with a look of helpless misery; "I
thought there was no dark in Nor--."

The unhappy painter stopped abruptly in consequence of a sensation in
the pit of his stomach.

"There's not much darkness in Norway in summer," answered McNab, "but at
the south end of it here there's a little--specially when the weather is
thick. Ay, I see it's comin'."

The peculiar way in which the Captain said this caused the others to
turn their eyes to windward, where it was very evident that something
was coming, for the sky was black as ink, and the sea under it was
ruffled with cold white foam.

"Stand by the clew-lines and halyards," roared the Captain.

The men, who were now all assembled on deck, sprang to obey. As they
did so a squall came hissing down on the weather-quarter, and burst upon
the vessel with such fury that for a moment she reeled under the shock
like a drunken man, while the spray deluged her decks, and the wind
shrieked through the rigging.

But this was too violent to last. It soon passed over and the gale blew
more st