no further
notice at the time, and her crooning went on during the whole period of
the bitter death-struggle of that poor sufferer, whose name I never
knew, but whose little, deformed waif, the orphan of the raft, remained
my heritage.

"You will take care of him," she had said to me, in her last conscious
moments, "my baby-boy, my little--" the name died on her lips, and she
never spoke again.

When she was dead, Christian Garth caused her to be wrapped in
sail-cloth, weighted with chains, and, with a brief prayer, consigned to
the deep. His superstitious sailor's fears rebelled against the idea of
keeping a corpse on board one moment longer than necessary, so the rites
of sepulture were speedily accomplished.

When I remonstrated, feebly enough it is true, for exhaustion was
supervening on long-sustained effort, at his haste, which, even under
the circumstances, seemed to me indecent, he coolly spoke of it as a
measure essential to the good of all.

Talismanic as were these words on such occasion, mine were the lips that
murmured the brief prayer, a portion of the solemn Episcopal
grave-service that I chanced to remember, above the poor, pale corpse,
even while my weary arms inclosed the struggling child, who,
understanding nothing of the truth, would fain have plunged after his
mother into depths unknown.

A low, long roll of thunder smote on the ear, like a message to the
ocean, from the heavens above, as we saw the waters close greedily over
the form of our dead passenger. The men who had launched the body from
the raft looked up and listened fearfully, and Christian Garth hastened
to trim his sail.

It was sunset now, and the clouds gathered so rapidly about the sun,
that he sank empalled in purple to his watery bed, leaving no trace
behind to mark his faded splendor.

A sudden breeze sprang up, infinitely refreshing at first to soul and
sense, and again the thunder lumbered and crashed about us. The billows
heaved and leaped like steeds just freed from harness, tossing their
white manes; the raft shuddered and reeled with a deadly, sickly motion,
like a creature in strong throes, plunging with frantic suddenness into
the troughs of the waves at one moment, as if impelled by fear, then
rallying to their summits, only to cast itself wildly down again.

All was confusion, dire and terrible. Then burst the storm upon
us--rain, wind!

I was conscious of clutching, with one hand, a rope which strained and