Year: 1875

day, and | was lying very still and
drowsy, half asleep like, but | was
awake enough to hear him whisper
to Polly, "Sinking fast;" and | heard
her give such a heartbroken sob, that
as the next great wave came on the
sea where was floating, | struck out
with all my might, rose over it, and
fioated gently down the other side.
! For the next four days-putting it
as a drowning man striving for his
life like true-hearted fellow-it was
like great foaming waves coming to
4 wash over me, but the shore still in
sight, and me trying hard to reach it.
And it was grim, hard fight: a
dozen times | could have given up,
ff2lded my arms. and said goodbye to
to the dear old watching lace safe On
shore; but look at that always cheer
ed me, and | fought on again and
again, till at last the sea seemed to go
down, and, in utter weariness, | turn
ed on my back to float restfully with
the tide bearing me shorewards, till ]
touched the sands, crept up them, and
fell down worn out, to sleep in the
warm sun-safe!


That's IA curious way of putting it,
you may say, but it seems natural to
me to mix it up with the things of
seagoing life, and the manner in which
I've seen so many men fight hard for
their lives. 1t was just like striving in
the midst of Il storm to me, and when
at last | did fall into a deep sleep, |
felt surprised-ike 10 find myself lying
in my own bed, with Polly watching
BY me; and when | stretched out my
hand and took hers, she let loose that
which she had kept hidden from me
before. and, falling on her knees by my
bedside, she sobbed for very JOY.


las much beef-tea and brandy us
you can get him to take" the doctor
says, that afternoon; and it wasn't
long before | got from slops to solids,
and then was sent, as | told you, into
the country to get strong. while the
doctor got no end of praise for the
cure he had made.


! never said word though, even to
Polly. for he did his best; but | don't
think any medicine would have cured
me then.


was saving a little while back that
| pulled my wife regularly ont of the
hands of death. and Of course that
was when we were both quite young.
though. for the matter of that. don't
feel much different and can't we'll see
the change. That was in one of the
Cape steamers when | first took to
stoking. They were little ramshackle
sort of boats in those days, how it was
more weren't lost puzzles me. 1t was
due more to the weather than the make
'or finding of the ships. | can tell you,
that they used to find their way safe
10 port; and yet the passengers, poor
things, knowing no better, used to
take passage, aye. and make a voyage
too from which they never got back.


Well | was working on board a
steamer rs they used to call the Equa-
tor, and heavy laden, and with about
twenty passengers on board, We start
ed down Channel with all well, till we
got down right off the west coast of
Africa, when there came one of the
heaviest storms | was ever in. Even
for well-found steamer. such as they
can build to-day, it would have been
a hard fight; but with our poor shaky
wooden tub it was a hopeless case from
the first.


Our skipper made Il brave fight of
it though, and tried hard to make for
one of the ports: but, bless you, what
can a man do when, after ten days
knocking about, the Goals run out, and
the fires that have been kept going
with wood and oil, and everything
that can be thrust into the furnaces,
are drowned; when the paddle-wheels
are only in the way, every bit of sail
set is blown clean out of the bolt-ropes,
and at last the ship begins to drift
fast for a lee shore?


/ That was our case, and every hour
the sea seemed to get higher, and the
wind more fierce, while | heard from
more than one man how fast the water
was gaining below.


Ny mate and didn't want any tell
ing though. We'd been driven up out
of the stoke-hole like pair of drown
ed rats. and came on deck to find the
bulwarks ripped away, and the sea
every now and then leaping aboard,
and was washing the lumber about in
all directions.


The skipper was behaving very well,
and he kept us all at the pumps, turn
and turn in spells, but we might as
well have tried to pump the sea dry;
and when, with the water gaining fast,
we told him what we thought, he own
ed as it was no use, and we gave up.


We'd all been at it, crew and pas
sengers, about forty of us altogether,
including the women-five of them
they were, and they were all Oh deck,
lashed in sheltered place, close to
the poop. And very pitiful it was to
see them fighting hard at first and
clinging to the side, but only to grow
weaker, half-drowned as they were
ana | saw two sink down at last, and
iltLS uiooplHS-lEh lIoih lHeli ldSll-
ings, dead, for not soul could do
them turn.


| was holding on by the shrouds
when the mate got to the shippers
side, and | saw In his blank white face
what he was telling him. Of course
We couldn't hear his words in such a
storm, but didn't want to, for his lips
said plain enough


"She's sinkingn'


Next moment there was rush
made for the boats, and two of the
passengers cut loose a couple of the
women; place was made for them be-
fore the first boat was too full, and
she was lowered down, and cast off,
and a big wave carried her clear of