inty little, close-fitting hat upon her head, her beautiful hair all
blown adrift and streaming, a long golden web of ringlets, in the fiery
breeze, her cheeks flushed to a delicate pink with the rude buffeting of
wind and sea, and her eyes fairly blazing with excitement and
exhilaration at the wild scene around her.

Our first glances were naturally directed ahead in search of the
mysterious object for which we were steering, and it was quickly
discovered about two miles distant, and a good point on the lee bow. To
the unaided eye its character still remained uncertain, but a single
glance through the ship's telescope now sufficed to satisfy us that it
was a wreck, or a portion of one. It had all the appearance of a small
craft, capsized; for the telescope enabled one to see a small strip of
wet, black side showing above water, with a considerably greater expanse
of copper-sheathed planking. But, even now that we had so greatly
decreased the distance between us and it, there was still great
difficulty in determining its precise character; for it was only when we
and it happened to be upon the top of a sea at the same moment that it
came within our ken, and those moments were comparatively rare.

As we continued to close, however, our glimpses of it became
increasingly frequent; and at length, when we had approached to within
half a mile, the heave of the sea having meanwhile flung it round into a
more favourable position, it became apparent that it was a small craft
of some sort--seemingly a brig--that had capsized, and now lay with her
masts prone along the water, for we could now and then catch a glimpse
of the spars, with the canvas still set, lifting a foot or two out of
the water with the heave of the sea, only to settle back again the next
moment, however. What interested us most keenly of all, however, and
excited our profoundest astonishment, was the fact that a dark patch in
her main rigging--for which I could not at first account--soon
afterwards proved to be a group of men! for we presently saw one of them
scramble along the shrouds until he reached the vessel's upturned side,
and then--despite the heavy masses of water that were continually
breaking over the hull--rise to his feet and wave something that looked
like a man's jacket, by way of a signal, in answer to which I
immediately ran our ensign up to the gaff-end.

The excitement of the fairer occupants of our poop was now intense,
especially that