Wakulla | Page 8

above is
condensed into vapor, just as your warm, damp breath is at this very
moment."
"But I should think the water would be cold with all that ice floating in
it," said Mark.
"It would seem cold if we were surrounded by the air of a hot summer
day," answered his father; "but being of a much higher temperature
than the air above it, it would seem quite warm to you now if you
should put your bare hand into it. We can only say that a thing is warm
by comparing it with something that is colder, or cold by comparison
with that which is warmer."
When Mark and his father went down to breakfast they found the
rescued man still wrapped in blankets, but talking in a faint voice to the
captain; and at the table the latter told the Elmers what he had learned
from him.
His name was Jan Jansen, and he was a Swede, but had served for
several years in the United States navy. On being discharged from it he
had made his way to New Sweden, in the northern part of Maine; but, a
week before, he had come to Bangor, hoping to obtain employment for
the winter in one of the saw-mills. In this he has been unsuccessful; and
the previous night, while returning from the city to the house on its
outskirts in which he was staying, he undertook to cross a small creek,
in the mouth of which were a number of logs; these were so cemented
together by recently formed ice that he fancied they would form a safe
bridge, and tried to cross on it. When near the middle of the creek, to
his horror the ice gave way with a crash, and in another moment he was
floating away in the darkness on the cake from which he had been so
recently rescued. That it had supported him was owing to the fact that it

still held together two of the logs. He had not dared attempt to swim
ashore in the dark, and so had drifted on during the night, keeping his
feet from freezing by holding them most of the time in the water.
After breakfast Mr. Elmer and the captain held a consultation, the result
of which was that the former offered Jan Jansen work in Florida, if he
chose to go to the St. Mark's with them; and Captain Drew offered to
let him work his passage to that place as one of the crew of the Nancy
Bell. Without much hesitation the poor Swede accepted both these
offers, and as soon as he had recovered from the effects of his
experience on the ice raft was provided with a bunk in the forecastle.
CHAPTER III.
"CAPTAIN LI'S" STORY.
All day the Nancy Bell was towed down the broad river, the glorious
scenery along its banks arousing the constant enthusiasm of our
travellers. Late in the afternoon they passed the gray walls of Fort Knox
on the right, and the pretty little town of Bucksport on the left. They
could just see the great hotel at Fort Point through the gathering dusk,
and soon afterwards were tossing on the wild, windswept waters of
Penobscot Bay.
As they cleared the land, so as to sight Castine Light over the port
quarter, the tug cast loose from them and sail was made on the
schooner. The last thing Mark Elmer saw as he left the deck, driven
below by the bitter cold, was the gleam of the light on Owl's Head,
outside which Captain Drew said they should find the sea pretty rough.
The rest of the family had gone below some time before, and Mark
found that his mother was already very sea-sick. He felt rather
uncomfortable himself, and did not care much for the supper, of which
his father and Ruth eat so heartily. He said he thought he would go to
bed, before supper was half over, and did so, although it was only six
o'clock. Poor Mark! it was a week before he again sat at table or went
on deck.

During this week the Nancy Bell sailed along the coasts of Maine, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. She went inside of Martha's
Vineyard, through Vineyard Sound, in company with a great fleet of
coasters; but when they passed Gay Head, and turned to the westward
into Long Island Sound, the Nancy was headed towards the lonely
light-house on Montauk Point, the extreme end of Long Island. From
here her course was for the Cape May lightship on the New Jersey
coast, and for some time she was out of sight of land.
So they sailed, day after day, ever southward, and towards the