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2. And merrily the ship went on
Before the wind so free,

But the skipper knew that a storm was nigh
By the wash of the surging sea.

3. And the storm came out with a shriek and shout, And the billows hissed and boiled,

As along their black and their ridgy back
The good ship strained and toiled.

4. "O father dear," she cried, and clasped
The skipper's horny hand,

"I wish that we saw the lights on shore,
I wish we were near the land."

5. “Nay, nay, my child; when the storm is wild
It is better far to be

Long leagues away from the shallow sands-
Away from the rocky lee."

6. There was no star in all the sky
To guide the lonely bark,

As on she drove before the storm,
So dreadful and so dark.

7. "O, is it a fancy, my father dear-
Do I wake or do I dream?

For in the lulling of the storm

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I heard a strange, wild scream!"

8. The skipper grasped his daughter's arm, And leaned with list'ning ear

Upon the blast again swept past

The scream so strange and clear.

9. "Down with the helm!" he shouted loud;
"Down, or we drive on shore!

For I hear the screaming of the gull
Above the tempest's roar."

10. Down went the helm, round went the ship
With a heavy lurch and strain;

And away it sped from the shore so dread
To the open sea again.

11. "My daughter, let us join to thank
Our Father dear in heaven,
Who unto us so many things
Hath in his mercy given.

12. "He sent that bird, whose scream we heard,
Amid the stormy roar,

To tell us danger was at hand,

And warn us from the shore.

13. "My daughter, there are thoughtless men,
And cruel ones as well,

Who slay the birds that on the shore
Of the wild ocean dwell.

14. "Ah, let them but remember, child,
That every bird they slay

Might, had it lived, have saved some ship
In some wild night or day.

15. "So let us thank our God, who sent
These wild sea-birds to be

The friends of every one who sails
The wide and trackless sea."

CXVI.-A STORM UPON THE OCEAN.

1. This day I have been gratified with what I had often desired to witness, the condition of the sea in a tempest. Not that I would allege curiosity as a sufficient plea for desiring to see that which can never be witnessed

without more or less of danger to the spectator, and still less when the gratification exposes others to anxiety and alarm.

2. Let me be understood, then, as meaning to say that my desire to witness a storm was not of such a kind as to make me indifferent to the apprehension which it is calculated to awaken; but aside from this there was nothing I could have desired more.

3. I had seen the ocean by moonlight, and as much of it as may be seen in the darkness, when the moon and stars are veiled, and had contemplated it in all its other phases (and they are almost innumerable); but until to-day I had never seen it in correspondence with a tempest.

4. After a breeze of some sixty hours from the north and northwest, the wind died away about four o'clock yesterday afternoon. The calm continued till nine in the evening, and in the meantime the mercury in the barometer fell at an extraordinary rate. The captain predicted that we should encounter a gale from the southeast, but I did not hear the prediction or I should not have gone to bed.

5. The gale came on about eleven o'clock; not violent at first, but increasing every moment. I slept soundly until after five in the morning, and then awoke with a confused recollection of much rolling and thumping through the night.

6. There was an unusual trampling and shouting, or rather screaming, upon deck, and soon after a crash upon the cabin floor, followed by one of the most unearthly screams I ever heard. The passengers taking alarm sprang from their berths, and, without waiting to dress, ran about asking questions, neither waiting for, nor receiving, any answers.

7. The shriek proceeded from the second steward, who, by a lurch of the ship had been thrown from the sofa, in

his sleep, some six feet to the cabin floor. It was still quite dark, but four of the sails were already in ribbons, the winds were whistling through the cordage, the rain was dashing furiously and in torrents, and the noise and spray were scarcely less than I found them under the great sheet at Niagara.

8. The captain with his speaking-trumpet, the officers and sailors, were all screaming, in their efforts to be heard, and mingling their oaths and curses with the angry voice of the tempest. This, all this, in the darkness which precedes the dawning of day, combined to form as much of the terribly sublime as I ever wish to witness concentrated in one scene.

9. We had encountered, however, as yet, only the commencement of the gale, whose terrors had been heightened by its suddenness, by the darkness, and by the confusion. It continued to blow furiously for twentyfour hours, so that during the whole day I enjoyed a view which, apart from its dangers, would be worth a voyage across the Atlantic.

10. The ship was driven madly through the raging waters, and when it was impossible to walk the decks. without imminent risk of being lifted up and carried away by the winds, the poor sailors were kept aloft, tossing and swinging about the yards and in the tops; clinging to the spars with their bodies, feet and arms. with mysterious tenacity, while their hands were employed in taking in and securing sail.

11. On deck the officers and men made themselves safe by ropes, but how the gallant fellows aloft kept from being blown out of the rigging was equally a matter of wonder and admiration. However, about seven o'clock

they had taken in what canvas had not blown away, except the sails by means of which the vessel is kept steady.

12. A nine o'clock, when the hurricane had acquired her full force, the work was all done, and the ship lay to; and those who had her in charge only remained on deck to be prepared for whatever disaster might occur.

13. By this time the sea was rolling up its hurricane waves; and, that I might not lose the grandeur of such a view, I fortified myself against the rain and spray in winter overcoat and cork-soled boots, and, in spite of the fierceness of the gale, planted myself in a position favorable for a survey of all around me, and in safety so long as the ship's strong works should hold together.

14. I had often seen paintings of a storm at sea, but here was the original. These imitations are oftentimes graphic and faithful as far as they go, but they are necessarily deficient in accompaniments which artists can not supply, and are therefore feeble and ineffective. You have upon canvas the ship and the sea, but they remain as they came from the hands of the artist. The universal motion of both are thus arrested and made stationary.

15. There is no subject in which the pencil of the painter is more indebted to the imagination than in its attempt to delineate a storm at sea; but even could the attempt be successful, so far as the eye is concerned, there would still be wanting the rushing of the hurricane, the groaning of the masts and yards, the quick, shrill rattling of the cordage, and the ponderous dashing of the uplifted deep.

ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.

CXVII. AN INCIDENT OF THE SEA.

1. We one day descried some shapeless object drifting at a distance. At sea, every thing that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts attention. It proved to be the mast of a ship that must have been

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