e dead fish. He said
he would not--if we liked to go, so would he; but stay there by himself;
while sport was going on, he would not.

"At last we resolved to leave the small boat empty, and to take him in
ours. To this he agreed. So, making the whale fast to his boat, and
securing the boat to the berg, away we pulled, as fast as we could lay
our backs to the oars, after a fish we saw blowing near us. Now what I
tell you is true, mates. Not thirty fathoms had we pulled, when over
toppled the iceberg right down on the boat, and we were nearly swamped
with the sea it made. When we pulled back to look for the whale,
neither it nor the boat was to be seen. You may fancy what would have
become of us if we had been there!"

"There are none of us, to my belief; but have often, if we would but
acknowledge it, been mercifully preserved by Providence," observed my
friend Andrew.

"I won't speak of what has happened to myself; and Terence, and Peter
here. No one will doubt, I hope, but that it was the finger of God
directed you to take us off the iceberg; but every day some less
remarkable case occurs. A block falls from aloft on the deck, where a
moment before we were standing; a musket-ball passes close to one's ear;
a topmast is carried away just as we have come off the yard; and fifty
other things occur of like nature, and we never think of being grateful
for our preservation. Talking of escapes, I once saw a man carried
overboard by a line round his ankle as a fish was diving. We all gave
him up for lost; but he had a sharp knife in the right-hand pocket of
his jacket, and he kept his thoughts about him so well, that before he
had got many fathoms down, he managed to stoop and cut the line below
his foot, then striking with all his might, he rose to the surface."

"Did you ever hear tell of the Dutchman who had a ride on the back of a
whale?" asked David. "He had just struck his harpoon into a fish, when,
lifting up her tail, she drove the boat into shatters. He fell on his
back, and got hold of his harpoon, his foot at the same time being
entangled in the line. Away swam the fish on the top of the water,
fortunately for him never thinking of diving. He stood upright all the
time, holding on by his right hand, while his left tried in vain to find
his knife to cut himself clear. Another boat followed, for the chance
of rescuing him; but there appeared but little hope of his being saved,
unless he could free