ly for repose; and so universally, that the
complete crew yielded to the call, not even one of them remaining in
charge of the helm.

It had been agreed upon that the craft should be left to choose its own
track; or rather, that which the wind might select for it.

Guided by the breath of heaven, and by that alone, did the _Catamaran_
continue her course.

How much way she made thus left alone to herself is not written down in
her "log." The time alone is recorded; and we are told that it was the
hour of midnight before any individual of her crew awoke from that
slumber, to which "all hands" had surrendered after setting her sail.

The first of them who awoke was little William. The sailor-lad was not
a heavy sleeper at any time, and on this night in particular his
slumbers had been especially _unsound_. There was trouble on his mind
before going to sleep, an uneasiness of no ordinary kind. It was not
any fear for his own fate. He was a true English tar in miniature, and
could not have been greatly distressed with any apprehensions of a
purely selfish nature. Those that harassed him were caused by his
consideration for another,--for Lilly Lalee.

For days he had been observing a change in the appearance of the child.
He had noticed the gradual paling of her cheek, and rapid attenuation of
her form,--the natural consequence of such a terrible exposure to one
accustomed all her days to a delicate and luxurious mode of existence.

On that day in particular, after the fearful shock they had all
sustained, the young Portuguese girl had appeared,--at least, in the
eyes of little William,--more enfeebled than ever; and the boy-sailor
had gone to sleep under a sad foreboding that she would be the first to
succumb,--and that soon,--to the hardships they were called upon to
encounter.

Little William loved Lilly Lalee with such love as a lad may feel for
one of his own age,--a love perhaps the sweetest in life, if not the
most lasting.

Inspired by this juvenile passion, and by the apprehensions he had for
its object, the boy-sailor did not sleep very soundly.

Fortunate that it was so; else that brilliant flame that near the
mid-hours of night glared athwart the deck of the _Catamaran_ might not
have awakened him; and had it not done so, neither he nor his three
companions might ever again have looked upon human face except their
own, and that only to see one another expire in the agonies of death.

There was a