first mate joined in the refrain. And Hookway ceased
to rave. They sang the hymn right through. The last verse was sung by
every one. The "_Amen_" went up like a prayer at the end. And the
sailors, with their caps in their hands, some of them with tears in
their eyes, looked gratefully at Sylvia and murmured, "Thank you, miss."

Oh! the days that followed, and the long, hungry nights! Even now I
dream of them, and start up trembling in my sleep.

Sylvia and I have very tender hearts when we hear of the starving poor.

To be hungry--oh! it is terrible. But to be thirsty too! And to feel
that one is dying of thirst--and water everywhere!

For those first dreadful days Mr. Wheeler dealt out half a biscuit to
each--half a biscuit with a morsel of beef that had to be breakfast, and
dinner, and tea! And just a little half mug of water tinctured with a
drop of rum!

And on that we lived, eight people in the cutter, for something like
eleven days! Eleven days in a scorching sun! Eleven calm, horrible
nights!

We wanted a breeze. And no breeze came, though we prayed for it night
and day. The remorseless ocean was like a sheet of glass. The sun shone
fiercely in the heavens. It made the sides of the cutter so hot that it
hurt our poor hands to touch it.

And all those days no sign of a sail! Not a vestige of a passing ship!

Evans and Davis grumbled and swore. And so did Hookway sometimes.
Gilliland was the most patient of the sailors; and tried to cheer up
every one else with stories of other people's escapes.

On the _May Queen_ Sylvia and I had thought Mr. Wheeler rather a
commonplace sort of man. We knew him for a hero in the cutter. Often he
used to break off pieces of his biscuit, I know, to add to Sylvia's and
mine.

"Friends," he said on the eleventh day, "the biscuit is all gone." His
face was ghastly. His eyes were hollow. His lips were cracked and sore.

"And the water?" asked the doctor faintly.

"Barely a teaspoon apiece."

"Keep it for the women then," suggested Dr. Atherton.

"No!" shouted Davis with an oath.

And, "We're all in the same boat," muttered Evans.

Gilliland lifted his bloodshot eyes. "Hold your jaw!" he said.

Hookway groaned feebly.

They looked more like wild beasts than men, with their ghastly faces,
and their glaring eyes--especially Davis.

He looked at me desperately. He thought I was going to have all the
water.

"I won't take more than my share, Mr. Wheeler," I said.