teful. The second and third day passed on,
when the mate calculated they were steering direct for the nearest point
of land which they could not fail to reach in another day, it being the
coast of Africa. His calculations were made under disadvantages, but he
felt confident of their correctness. The weather, fortunately, had been
very calm and pleasant thus far, since the gale had subsided, and the
frail craft thus exposed upon the ocean had really proved quite
comfortable and weatherly for the time being. A snug little apology for
a cabin had been constructed over the forward part of the boat, into
which the ladies could retire at nightfall, and become secure from the
weather and be entirely by themselves; and under the circumstances they
were really quite comfortable, that is to say, they experienced little
exposure to the elements at night, and slept securely in their narrow
quarters.

In leaving the ship, the mother had been more thoughtful than many
persons would have been, and had taken the box which contained her
valuables and such papers as comprised her heavy bills of credit on
England, in which way she was transporting the bulk of her husband's
late valuable estate to her native land. At first she had taken especial
pains not to have the fact known to the men that she had any great
amount of valuables with her, lest it should prove a temptation to them,
and lead to some tragical result as it regarded the safety of herself
and child. But she need not have feared, those hearty sons of the ocean
were true as steel; and it was only the second day that having laid the
casket down carelessly in the boat, she had retired to the little
forecastle forgetting it, when it was brought to her again by one of
them who remarked, that he presumed it was something of particular value
by its appearance.

According to the mate's reckoning, the time had already arrived when the
land should heave in sight, and the three seamen were constantly on the
lookout for it in the supposed direction where it should appear; but all
their search for it proved in vain, there was the same endless expanse
of ocean before them day after day, bounded only by the dim horizon, and
unrelieved by any object, while the same hope reigned in their hearts.
The exposure they endured, though not very severe, yet began to tell
upon them all, and especially the mate and two seamen, and the cheeks of
the seamen already looked sunken, their eyes less spirited.