The meal was an irregular one. The steward brought in three large
mugs, half filled with coffee; a basket of biscuits, and a ham.
From this he cut off some slices, which he laid on biscuits; and
each of them ate their breakfast, holding their mugs in one hand,
and their biscuits and ham in the other.

As soon as they had finished, the two officers went on deck and,
directly afterwards, the captain came down. Bob chatted with him
until he had finished his breakfast, and then went up on deck
again, for two or three hours. At the end of that time he felt so
completely exhausted, from the force of the wind and the constant
change of the angle at which he was standing, that he was glad to
go below and lie down again.

There was no regular dinner, the officers coming below by turns,
and taking a biscuit and a chunk of cold meat, standing. But at
teatime the captain and second mate came down together; and Bob,
who had again been up on deck for a bit, joined them in taking a
large bowl of coffee.

"I think the wind is blowing harder than ever," he said to the
captain.

"Yes, the glass has begun to rise a little, and that is generally a
sign you are getting to the worst of it. I expect it is a three
days' gale, and we shall have it at its worst, tonight. I hope by
this time, tomorrow, we shall be beginning to shake out our reefs.

"You had better not go up, any more. It will be dark in half an
hour, and your bunk is the best place for you."

Bob was not sorry to obey the order, for he felt that the scene
would be a very terrible one, after dark. The night, however,
seemed to him to be a miserably long one; for he was only able to
doze off occasionally, the motion being so violent that he had to
jam himself in his berth, to prevent himself from being thrown out.
The blows with which the waves struck the ship were tremendous; and
so deeply did she pitch that, more than once, he thought that she
would never come up again; but go down, head foremost. Once he
thought he heard a crash, and there were orders shouted, on the
deck above him; but he resisted the desire to go up and see what it
was, for he knew that he could do nothing; and that, in the
darkness, he could see but little of what was going on.

With the first gleam of daylight, however, he got out of the bunk.
He had not attempted to undress, having taken off his shoes, only,
when he lay down. Having put these on again, he went up. There was
but little change sinc