rn hair shone like
gold in the sun, contrasting well with her lovely complexion, and
enhancing the sweetness of a smile which conveyed to the beholder only
one idea--love. Many other castles were built in the clouds at that
time by Will, but the cottage made the most lasting impression on his
mind.

"Sleepin'?" inquired Cupples, the mate, thrusting his head through that
orifice in the main-top which is technically called the "lubber's hole."

"No, meditating," answered Will; "I've been thinking of the coral
islands."

"Humph," ejaculated the mate contemptuously, for Cupples, although a
kind-hearted man, was somewhat cynical and had not a particle of
sentiment in his soul. Indeed he showed so little of this that Larry
was wont to say he "didn't belave he had a sowl at all, but was only a
koorious specimen of an animated body."

"It's my opinion, doctor, that you'd as well come down, for it's goin'
to blow hard."

Will looked in the direction in which the mate pointed, and saw a bank
of black clouds rising on the horizon. At the same moment the captain's
voice was heard below shouting--"Stand by there to reef topsails!" This
was followed by the command to close-reef. Then, as the squall drew
rapidly nearer, a hurried order was giving to take in all sail. The
squall was evidently a worse one than had at first been expected.

On it came, hissing and curling up the sea before it.

"Mind your helm!--port a little, port!"

"Port it is, sir," answered the man at the wheel, in the deep quiet
voice of a well-disciplined sailor, whose only concern is to do his
duty.

"Steady!" cried the captain.

The words had barely left his lips, and the men who had been furling the
sails had just gained the deck, when the squall struck them, and the
_Foam_ was laid on her beam-ends, hurling all her crew into the
scuppers. At the same time terrible darkness overspread the sky like a
pall. When the men regained their footing, some of them stood
bewildered, not knowing what to do; others, whose presence of mind never
deserted them, sprang to where the axes were kept, in order to be ready
to cut away the masts if necessary. But the order was not given.

Captain Dall and Will, who had been standing near the binnacle, seized
and clung to the wheel.

"She will right herself," said the former, as he observed that the masts
rose a little out of the sea.

Fortunately the good ship did so, and then, although there was scarcely
a