as he gazed, not exactly with fear, but
with excitement, because he recognized in this huge water-monster
under him that Old Man of the Sea who had appeared and talked to him
in his dream when he fell asleep among the rocks. Could it be,
although he was asleep at the time, that the Old Man really had
appeared before him, and that his eyes had been open just enough to
see him?

By-and-by the cloud-like face disappeared, and did not return though
he watched for it a long time. Then sitting on the black, rotten
wood and brown seaweed he gazed over the ocean, a vast green, sunlit
expanse with no shore and no living thing upon it. But after a while
he began to think that there was some living thing in it, which was
always near him though he could not see what it was. From time to
time the surface of the sea was broken just as if some huge fish had
risen to the surface and then sunk again without showing itself. It
was something very big, judging from the commotion it made in the
water; and at last he did see it or a part of it--a vast brown
object which looked like a gigantic man's shoulder, but it might
have been the back of a whale. It was no sooner seen than gone, but
in a very short time after its appearance cries as of birds were
heard at a great distance. The cries came from various directions,
growing louder and louder, and before long Martin saw many birds
flying towards him.

On arrival they began to soar and circle round above him, all
screaming excitedly. They were white birds with long wings and long
sharp beaks, and were very much like gulls, except that they had an
easier and swifter flight.

Martin rejoiced at seeing them, for he had been in the greatest
terror at the strangeness and loneliness of the sea now that there
was no land in sight. Sitting on the black raft he was constantly
thinking of the warning words his mother of the hills had spoken
--that the sea would kiss him with cold salt lips and take him down
into the depths where he would never see the light again. O how
strange the sea was to him now, how lonely, how terrible! But birds
that with their wings could range over the whole world were of the
land, and now seemed to bring the land near him with their white
forms and wild cries. How could they help him? He did not know, he
did not ask; but he was not alone now that they had come to him, and
his terror was less.

And still more birds kept coming; and as the morning wore on the
crowd of b