Sunk at Sea | Page 8

which took the form of
mountains fringed with glittering gold and with shadows of pearly
grey.
Oh what castles young Osten did build on these mountains, to be sure!

Structures so magnificent that Eastern architects, had they seen them,
would have hung their heads and confessed themselves outdone. But
you must not imagine, reader, that the magnificence of all of these
depended on their magnitude or richness. On the contrary, one of them
was a mere cottage--but then, it was a pattern cottage. It stood in a
palm-wood, on a coral island near the sea-shore, with a stream trickling
at its side, and a lake full of wild fowl behind, and the most gorgeous
tropical plants clustering round its open windows and door, while
inside, seated on a couch, was a beautiful girl of fifteen (whom Will
had often imagined, but had not yet seen), whose auburn hair shone like
gold in the sun, contrasting well with her lovely complexion, and
enhancing the sweetness of a smile which conveyed to the beholder
only one idea--love. Many other castles were built in the clouds at that
time by Will, but the cottage made the most lasting impression on his
mind.
"Sleepin'?" inquired Cupples, the mate, thrusting his head through that
orifice in the main-top which is technically called the "lubber's hole."
"No, meditating," answered Will; "I've been thinking of the coral
islands."
"Humph," ejaculated the mate contemptuously, for Cupples, although a
kind-hearted man, was somewhat cynical and had not a particle of
sentiment in his soul. Indeed he showed so little of this that Larry was
wont to say he "didn't belave he had a sowl at all, but was only a
koorious specimen of an animated body."
"It's my opinion, doctor, that you'd as well come down, for it's goin' to
blow hard."
Will looked in the direction in which the mate pointed, and saw a bank
of black clouds rising on the horizon. At the same moment the captain's
voice was heard below shouting--"Stand by there to reef topsails!" This
was followed by the command to close-reef. Then, as the squall drew
rapidly nearer, a hurried order was giving to take in all sail. The squall
was evidently a worse one than had at first been expected.

On it came, hissing and curling up the sea before it.
"Mind your helm!--port a little, port!"
"Port it is, sir," answered the man at the wheel, in the deep quiet voice
of a well-disciplined sailor, whose only concern is to do his duty.
"Steady!" cried the captain.
The words had barely left his lips, and the men who had been furling
the sails had just gained the deck, when the squall struck them, and the
Foam was laid on her beam-ends, hurling all her crew into the scuppers.
At the same time terrible darkness overspread the sky like a pall. When
the men regained their footing, some of them stood bewildered, not
knowing what to do; others, whose presence of mind never deserted
them, sprang to where the axes were kept, in order to be ready to cut
away the masts if necessary. But the order was not given.
Captain Dall and Will, who had been standing near the binnacle, seized
and clung to the wheel.
"She will right herself," said the former, as he observed that the masts
rose a little out of the sea.
Fortunately the good ship did so, and then, although there was scarcely
a rag of canvas upon her, she sprang away before the hurricane like a
sea-gull.
Terrible indeed is the situation of those who are compelled to "scud
under bare poles," when He who formed the great deep, puts forth His
mighty power, causing them to "stagger and be at their wits' end." For
hours the Foam rushed wildly over the sea, now rising like a cork on
the crest of the billows, anon sinking like lead into the valleys between.
She was exposed to double danger; that of being cast upon one of the
numerous coral reefs with which the Pacific in some parts abounds, or
being "pooped" and overwhelmed by the seas which followed her.
During this anxious period little was said or done except in reference to

the working of the ship. Men snatched sleep and food at intervals as
they best might. At length, after two days, the gale began to abate, and
the sea to go down.
"It was sharp while it lasted, captain, but it seems to have done us little
harm," said Will Osten, on the evening of the second day.
"True," said the captain heartily; "we'll soon repair damages and make
all snug.--Is there much water in the hold, Mr Cupples?"
The mate answered gloomily that there was a good deal.
It must not be supposed that Mr Cupples'