n't happen to
get dismasted. But I find the morning air rather nipping, so I will get
my bath and go below again. Will you kindly allow one of your men to
play upon me with the head-pump, Mr Murgatroyd?"

"Certainly, Mr Conyers, with pleasure, sir," answered the mate.
"Bosun, just tell off a man to pump for Mr Conyers, will ye!"

The ship was by this time so lively that I was not at all surprised to
meet but a meagre muster at the breakfast-table. Yet, of the few
present, Miss Onslow was one, and the soaring and plunging and the wild
lee rolls of the ship appeared to affect her no more than if she were
sitting at home in her own breakfast-room. She was silent, as usual,
but her rich colour, and the evident relish with which she partook of
the food placed before her, bore witness to the fact that her silence
was due to inclination alone. About an hour after breakfast the young
lady made her appearance upon the poop, well wrapped up, and began to
pace to and fro with an assured footing and an easy, graceful poise of
her body to the movements of the deck beneath her that was, to my mind
at least, the very poetry of motion. The skipper and I happened to be
walking together, at the moment of her appearance, and of course we both
with one accord sprang forward and, cap in hand, proffered the support
of our arms. She accepted that of the skipper with a graciousness of
manner that was to be paralleled only by the frigid dignity with which
she declined mine.

The breeze held strong all that day, and for the five days following,
gradually hauling round, however, and heading us, until, with our yards
braced hard in against the lee rigging, and the three royals and mizzen
topgallant-sail stowed, we went thrashing away to the westward against a
heavy head-sea that kept our decks streaming as far aft as the mainmast,
instead of bowling away across the Bay under studding-sails, as we had
hoped. Then we fell in with light weather for nearly a week, that
enabled all hands in the cuddy to find their sea legs and a good hearty
appetite once more, the ship slowly traversing her way to the southward,
meanwhile; and finally we got a westerly wind that, beginning gently
enough to permit of our showing skysails to it, ended in a regular North
Atlantic gale that compelled us to heave-to for forty-two hours before
it blew itself out.

The gale was at its height, blowing with almost hurricane fury, with a
terrific sea running, about t