e.
I hope they don't think we are lost. That is the worst part of the
business. It will not be pleasant to live upon raw fish for very long,
but I suppose that it will keep us alive, and probably we shall fall in
with some vessel or other, which will tow us home. That will be very
nice. What a pleasant picnic we had, and Harry to come home just in
time, and Mary Rymer, and what a dear--oh! how pleasant--how--" Poor
David was asleep. No wonder, after having been awake for so many hours,
and only just a little more than one hour's rest on a hard plank. He
still held the tiller, and instinctively moved it to or from him, as he
felt the boat inclined to broach to. His eyes, indeed, were not quite
closed, so that in reality he saw the seas as they rolled before him,
and perhaps steered almost as well as he had done before. Meantime the
old man remained in a state of stupor, and Harry slept as soundly as a
"church door," or rather as midshipmen are generally supposed to do.
Thus the boat must have gone on for hours. Happily, the wind and sea
were going down, or it would have been a serious matter to the boys. It
will be understood that, after an easterly gale in the Channel, the sea
goes down more rapidly than after a westerly one, when there has been a
commotion across the whole sweep of the Atlantic. Suddenly a loud
concussion and a continued grating sound made both David and Harry start
to their feet, and they saw what seemed a huge black mass towering above
them. What could it be?

"A ship! a ship!" shouted Harry. "Heave a rope here!"

No one answered. As the boat was slowly rubbing by the side of the ship
(for Harry was right in his conjecture), he found a rope hanging
overboard. With the activity of a seaman he secured the end round the
fore-thwart of the boat, while David hauled down the sail--not that that
was of any consequence, as the wind had fallen almost to a calm. Again
Harry, joined by David, shouted loudly, but no one answered.

"I believe the ship is abandoned," he observed. "Yes, I am sure she is,
for I see no masts. She is not quite so large, either, as I thought at
first--a brig probably. However, we shall soon have daylight, and know
all about it."

The dawn was already breaking, but no roseate hue was seen in the sky,
to indicate the position of the rising sun. Although the sea had gone
down greatly, still the boat struck heavily every now and then against
the vessel, as she rolle