nd swamp us.'

"`All right, Dick; we can manage to hold out for a few hours more,'
cried the other two. `Don't think of going, Tom; we wouldn't have you
run the risk for our sakes.'

"From the gnawings in my own stomach I knew that the poor youngsters
must be very sharp set. However, it seemed to me that the wind was
somewhat less than it had been, and I hoped that in a few hours more the
hurricane would be over, or that we should be out of it. I told them
so, and I soon heard them laughing and talking as if nothing particular
out of the way was happening. Well, in a couple of hours or so the wind
fell, and I saw that we must have the foresail set, or run the chance of
being pooped. I told them what I wanted, and casting off their lashings
they all sprang together to the halyards, and soon had the sail hoisted
and the sheet belayed. They then made their way aft.

"`Now I think we've earned our breakfasts,' says Mr Rogers, and
slipping off the companion hatch he dived below, while the other two
stood ready to draw it over again, in case a sea should come aboard us.
He quickly returned with some bread, meat, a bottle of wine, and a
basket of fruit. They wouldn't touch anything till they had fed me, for
they said I had had the hardest work, and saved their lives. My hands,
you see, had still enough to do in working the tiller, and my eyes, too,
for that matter, in keeping a watch on the seas; so all I could do was
just to open my mouth and let them put the food into it. All I wanted
was enough to keep body and soul together, and I then advised them to
get back to the shrouds, and to make themselves fast as before, as there
was no saying what might happen while the sea was tumbling about in its
present fashion. `You must take a swig of the wine first,' says Mr
Rogers, in his cheery way, just like the lieutenant, his brother,
holding the bottle to my mouth. I'd got a gulp or two of the liquor,
keeping my weather eye open all the time, when I saw an ugly big sea
come rolling up on our quarter. I sung out to the other two to hold
fast to the companion hatch for their lives, while I got a grip of Mr
Tom between one of my arms and the tiller. I couldn't avoid the sea.
Right over us it came, pouring down the still open hatchway, and
sweeping across the deck. I had Mr Tom safe enough, though the breath
was half squeezed out of his body; but I was afraid the others would
have been torn from their hold. Like brave-h