nion, urging her to turn
in at once and get as much rest as she could.

It was exceedingly fortunate that I had taken the precaution to reef the
canvas of our small hooker; for about an hour or so after sunset--very
shortly, indeed, after the completion of my preparations--the wind
freshened up with quite a touch of spite in it, driving us along at a
speed of fully eight knots, and tugging at the mast as though intent on
dragging it out of the boat altogether; the sea, moreover, began to rise
and break, and by midnight I was in a bath of perspiration induced by
anxiety and the effort to keep the boat ahead of and square end-on to
the combers. This condition of excessive and painful anxiety, by the
way, was quite a new, as well as decidedly unpleasant, experience for
me, and I was deeply mortified and annoyed at the discovery of its
influence upon me. I first took myself severely to task about it, and
then proceeded to seek for the cause of the trouble. I was at first
disposed to attribute it to nerve-shock, induced by the occurrences of
the preceding twenty-four hours, but a further analysis of my feelings
convinced me that my nerves were still to be depended upon as implicitly
as ever, and that the real source of my distress lay at my feet, asleep,
wrapped up in a sail. Yes; there could be no doubt about it; it was on
my companion's account that I was nervous and anxious; I feared being
capsized or swamped simply because of the greatly-increased danger and
discomfort that would in that case accrue to _her_!

At length--probably about two o'clock in the morning--it breezed up so
fiercely, and knocked up such a sea that I dared not run the boat any
longer, so, watching my chance, I put the helm down and hove-to on the
larboard tack, with the boat's head to the northward, and anxiously
awaited the coming of daylight. Soon after this, Miss Onslow awoke, and
seemed considerably alarmed at the change in the weather and the wild
movements of the boat; but I managed to reassure her; and then,
observing that I had lashed the port yoke-line, and was no longer doing
anything, she suggested that we should change places, and that I should
get a little sleep! After my assurances as to the utter absence of any
danger I found it somewhat difficult to make her understand--without
alarming her--that it was still as urgently necessary as ever for me to
watch the boat.

At length the dawn came filtering slowly through a murky and