f into
a real sound sleep. When I awoke the vessel lay as quietly as in a
mill-pond, and not a sound was to be heard except the soft lap of the
water against the hull. I couldn't even hear the breathing of the
midshipmen, and for a moment the dreadful thought came to me that they
were dead, or had got loose somehow or other, and had slipped into the
sea. I lifted myself up so that I could reach the shrouds. There they
were safe enough, and all as fast asleep as they could have been in
their hammocks. I wouldn't awake them, as I thought the sleep would do
them good. I myself had no wish to go to sleep again, so I sat up
watching the bright stars shining out of the clear sky, and thinking
whether it would be possible to get the vessel righted; and if not, what
chance there was if we could form a raft of reaching one of the islands,
or falling in with a passing vessel. To my mind a man's a coward who
cries die while there's life in him, and I determined, with the help of
Him who I knew right well looks after poor Jack, to do my best to save
myself and the young midshipmen. These things gave me enough to think
about for the rest of that long night. At last the light of day came
back, the stars grew dim, and presently the sun, like a huge ball of
fire, with a blaze of red all around him over the sky, rose out of the
glass-like sea. I knew that it was going to be blazing hot, and that we
should feel it terribly. The midshipmen awaking, were much surprised to
find that it was light again already, and couldn't believe that they had
slept through the night. Having cast off their lashings they began to
move about to stretch their cramped limbs, not that there was much space
for that.

"`Now, messmates,' said Mr Rogers, `there's one thing we ought to do
before we think of anything else, and that is, to thank God for having
preserved us through the night, and to pray to Him to protect us, and to
take us ashore in safety. Needham, you'll join us, I know.'

"`Of course, I will, sir,' says I, and well pleased I was to hear the
youngster speak in that way without any shamefacedness. It was just
what I'd been thinking, for if a man dare not ask God to help him, he
must be in a bad way indeed.

"Without another word we all knelt on the side of the vessel, and a
right good honest prayer did Mr Rogers offer up. No parson or bishop
either could have prayed a better, though he might have put more words
into it. The young g