ple I played you; and he afterwards explained
that any perfectly transparent substance in a convex shape--that is,
bulging out like this--will collect the rays of the sun, and form a
burning-glass. But now, while the sun is out, and before our
burning-glass melts, let us light a fire and boil our soup."

The chips we had collected very rapidly dried; so we soon had a fire
kindled by this unexpected means. The soup refreshed us wonderfully;
but we were very sparing of it, by Andrew's advice; for we could not
tell how long we might have to remain without means of obtaining more
food.

Thus passed away our first day on the iceberg, without a sail appearing
in the horizon to afford us a hope of rescue.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

That night, overcome by fatigue, strange as it may seem, we all slept
soundly. The sun again rose, and discovered us still floating in safety
on our unstable resting-place. The day passed much as the former one
had done.

We had been actively employed during the greater part of it, and
therefore, in spite of our extraordinary position and the deep anxiety
we felt for our future fate, we were all able to sleep, if not very
soundly, at least for some hours, when the third night closed in upon
us. I need not say that Andrew offered up our prayers aloud for
deliverance to the Great Being who had hitherto so mercifully preserved
us.

I dreamed, it seemed to me, all night long. Sometimes I was at home
with my father and mother and sweet sisters, and they were all laughing
and talking, while we stood at the window of the dining-hall and looked
out at the beautiful and familiar prospect before it. Someone was
describing to them some adventures very similar to mine; but I felt that
I could have nothing to do with them, for I was still, I knew, on an
iceberg in the Northern Ocean, likely any moment to be overwhelmed
beneath it. Then I thought a ship appeared, and Captain Dean was at the
helm, and that sweet Mary, dressed in white, and looking like a seraph,
stood on the forecastle waving to me to come off to them. I, of course,
could not move, for my feet were jammed into a hole in the ice, and I
struggled in vain to drag them out. On a sudden a storm arose, and Mary
shrieked; and even her father turned pale, as the ship rose on the tops
of the angry billows, and rolled over and over, bow foremost, till she
was lost to my sight in the distance. I cried out with terror, and my
own voice awoke