we parted, she going to see that her
aunt was comfortable, and I out on to the main-deck to have a chat with
the man on watch. In this way, I passed the time until midnight, and in
that while we had been forced to call the men thrice to heave upon the
hawser, so quickly had the ship begun to make way through the weed. Then,
having grown sleepy, I said goodnight, and went to my berth, and so had
my first sleep upon a mattress, for some weeks.

Now when the morning was come, I waked, hearing Mistress Madison calling
upon me from the other side of my door, and rating me very saucily for a
lie-a-bed, and at that I made good speed at dressing, and came quickly
into the saloon, where she had ready a breakfast that made me glad I had
waked. But first, before she would do aught else, she had me out to the
lookout place, running up before me most merrily and singing in the
fullness of her glee, and so, when I had come to the top of the
superstructure, I perceived that she had very good reason for so much
merriment, and the sight which came to my eyes, gladdened me most
mightily, yet at the same time filling me with a great amazement; for,
behold! in the course of that one night, we had made near unto two
hundred fathoms across the weed, being now, with what we had made
previously, no more than some thirty fathoms in from the edge of the
weed. And there stood Mistress Madison beside me, doing somewhat of a
dainty step-dance upon the flooring of the look-out, and singing a quaint
old lilt that I had not heard that dozen years, and this little thing, I
think, brought back more clearly to me than aught else how that this
winsome maid had been lost to the world for so many years, having been
scarce of the age of twelve when the ship had been lost in the
weed-continent. Then, as I turned to make some remark, being filled with
many feelings, there came a hail, from far above in the air, as it might
be, and, looking up, I discovered the man upon the hill to be standing
along the edge, and waving to us, and now I perceived how that the hill
towered a very great way above us, seeming, as it were, to overhang the
hulk though we were yet some seventy fathoms distant from the sheer sweep
of its nearer precipice. And so, having waved back our greeting, we made
down to breakfast, and, having come to the saloon, set-to upon the good
victuals, and did very sound justice thereto.

Presently, having made an end of eating, and hearing the clack of