smith does with his drill
while boring a hole in a piece of iron. In a few seconds the tinder
began to smoke; in less than a minute it caught fire; and in less than a
quarter of an hour we were drinking our lemonade and eating cocoa-nuts
round a fire that would have roasted an entire sheep, while the smoke,
flames, and sparks flew up among the broad leaves of the overhanging
palm-trees, and cast a warm glow upon our leafy bower.

That night the starry sky looked down through the gently rustling trees
upon our slumbers, and the distant roaring of the surf upon the coral
reef was our lullaby.

CHAPTER FIVE.

MORNING, AND COGITATIONS CONNECTED THEREWITH--WE LUXURIATE IN THE SEA,
TRY OUR DIVING POWERS, AND MAKE ENCHANTING EXCURSIONS AMONG THE CORAL
GROVES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN--THE WONDERS OF THE DEEP ENLARGED
UPON.

What a joyful thing it is to awaken on a fresh, glorious morning, and
find the rising sun staring into your face with dazzling brilliancy! to
hear the birds twittering in the bushes, and to hear the murmuring of a
rill, or the soft, hissing ripples as they fall upon the seashore! At
any time, and in any place, such sights and sounds are most charming;
but more especially are they so when one awakens to them, for the first
time, in a novel and romantic situation, with the soft, sweet air of a
tropical climate mingling with the fresh smell of the sea, and stirring
the strange leaves that flutter overhead and around one, or ruffling the
plumage of the stranger birds that fly inquiringly around as if to
demand what business we have to intrude uninvited on their domains.
When I awoke on the morning after the shipwreck, I found myself in this
most delightful condition; and as I lay on my back upon my bed of
leaves, gazing up through the branches of the cocoa-nut trees into the
clear blue sky, and watched the few fleecy clouds that passed slowly
across it, my heart expanded more and more with an exulting gladness,
the like of which I had never felt before. While I meditated, my
thoughts again turned to the great and kind Creator of this beautiful
world, as they had done on the previous day when I first beheld the sea
and the coral reef, with the mighty waves dashing over it into the calm
waters of the lagoon.

While thus meditating, I naturally bethought me of my Bible, for I had
faithfully kept the promise which I gave at parting to my beloved
mother--that I would read it every morning; and it was w