it, I determined to keep it, lest he should require
more.

I continued to do my best to cheer him up by talking to him of my home,
and how he might find his relations and friends, and then I bethought me
that I would sing a _song_. I don't suppose that many people have sung
under such circumstances, but I managed to strike up a stave, one of
those with which I had been accustomed to amuse my messmates in the
_Naiad's_ forecastle. It was not, perhaps, one of the merriest, but it
served to divert Clem's thoughts, as well as mine, from our perilous
position.

"I wish that I could sing too," said Clem; "but I know I could not, if I
was to try. I wonder you can, Jack."

"Why? because I am sure that we shall be picked up before long, and so I
see no reason why I should not try to be happy," I answered
thoughtlessly.

"Ah, but I am thinking of those who are gone," said Clem. "My kind
father, as I called him, and old Growl, and the rest of the poor
fellows; it is like singing over their graves."

"You are right, Clem," I said; "I will sing no more, though I only did
it to keep up your spirits. But what is that?" I exclaimed, suddenly,
as we rose to the crest of a sea. "A large ship standing directly for
us."

"Yes; she is close-hauled, beating down Channel," observed Clement.
"She will be right upon us, too, if she keeps her present course."

"We must take care to let her know where we are, by shouting together at
the top of our voices when we are near enough to be heard," I said.

"She appears to me to be a man-of-war, and probably a sharp look-out is
kept forward," Clement remarked. We had not observed the ship before,
as our faces had been turned away from her. The sea had, however, been
gradually working the mast round, as I knew to be the case by the
different position in which the moon appeared to us.

"We must get ready for a shout, Clem, and then cry out together as we
have never cried before. I'll say when we are to begin."

As the ship drew nearer Clem had no doubt that she was a man-of-war, a
large frigate apparently, under her three topsails and courses.

"She is passing to windward of us," I exclaimed.

"Not so sure of that," cried Clem. "She will be right over us if we do
not cry out in time."

"Let us begin, then," I said. "Now, shout away, Hip! Hip!"

"No, no!" cried Clem, "that will not do. Shout `Ship ahoy!'"

I had forgotten for the moment what to say, so together we began
sh