children, but the untimely fate of the "Ancient
Mariner" having taken strong hold on the
captain's imagination, the bird was immediately
thrown into the sea, and the officer got a severe
rebuke for his temerity. We passed along the
coast of Brazil, and were so near Pernambuco
that we could see the lights in the houses and
hear music from shore. And then the captain
said that the next land we should see would be
the long low shores of Ireland.

On the night of the fourth of January, 'sixty-
two, we had been eighty-six days out, and, in
ten more, we thought to be in England.

Our little ones were fast asleep in bed, and
we had been on deck for a few moments
watching the stir of angry waters, for the heavens
looked dark and threatening, and the sailors
prophesied a stormy night.

We had not been below in the saloon for
many minutes, when there was a little son born
to one of the passengers. We all did what we
could for the poor mother, but there was no
doctor on board, and, as all the other children
awoke with the unusual noise and bustle, we
were nearly deafened with their screaming. The
wind, too, increased in fury, and the ship rolled
till we could not stand.

Half frightened at the roaring of the waters,
and deeply impressed with the new responsibility
of having this poor sick woman and her
helpless baby to take care of, we went
reluctantly to bed. My own little one had again
fallen asleep, and, after gazing at her long and
earnestly with some vague unacknowledged fear,
I at last fell into an uneasy restless slumber.

I remember waking once, and seeing the
captain quickly pass with his charts in his hand,
when Anita said, "Oh, mamma! what noise is
that?" True enough, the noise on deck was
awful, for the wind and the waves seemed
lashing the ship to madness; but the child fell
asleep again, and I lay half asleep, when
suddenly I heard a voice calling my name in quick
sharp tones. Starting up wildly, I saw at my
cabin door the trembling figure of Mrs. F—— ,
her face white with fear, her eyes distended
with horror. My own teeth chattering with
fright, I asked her what was the matter. "Oh,
we are going down," she said. "The ship is
sinking!" Husband, mother, brothers, sisters,
came to my thought in that instant with a
fearful agony of yearning. My child, my only
one, was asleep beside me. Wildly I stooped
and kissed her, for I thought at that first
moment there was no hope, and that, foundered
at sea, we were going down rapidly. The child
slept on, and I hushed my breath to listen.
Stand I could not, for the ship was rolling
frightfully, and every few moments a great wave
would dash with remorseless force against her
sides, making her shake and quiver again.
Mrs. F—— had gone with her two little ones
into the captain's cabin. Awaking my child, I
hastily dressed her and myself in the first bits
of clothing I could find, and joined my friend.
The small leak had at last burst into a large
one, and the ship was filling rapidly. We remained,
till dawn, shivering and shaking below,
for by keeping the three pumps at work, and
lightening the vessel of her heavy cargo, the
captain meant to save her if he could.

At dawn, taking my little girl by the hand,
I went on deck. The storm had in some measure
abated, but the sea looked black and sullen,
and the swell of the vast heavy waves seemed
to mock our frailty. The sailors had been up
all night, and were as men playing at some
ferocious game; some working in desperation at
the pumps, and singing at the pitch of their
voices wild sea-songs to time their common
efforts; others employed in throwing hundreds
of bags of grain into the sea that they might
thus lighten the ship. This I think, more than
all, showed me our peril. I wandered about
too miserable to remain in any one spot, till the
captain assembled us all once more in the cabin
to get some food, saying that it was impossible
to save the ship, and that we should have need
of all our fortitude. I remember my own vain
attempt to eat some bread, but the poor little
children took their breakfast and enjoyed it.

We were then each provided with a large bag
made of sailcloth, and were advised by the
captain to fill it with the warmest articles of
clothing we possessed.

All my worldly possessions were on board,
comprising many memorials of dear friends,
portraits of loved ones I shall never see again,
and my money loss I knew would be no trifle.
In perfect bewilderment, I looked around, and
filled my bag with stockings and a couple of
warm shawls. On the top of a box I saw a little
parcel that had been entrusted to me by a lady
in California to deliver to her mother in
Liverpool. I put that in my bag, and she got it. I
then dressed myself and the child in as many
things as we could possibly bear, for I thought
of the cold drenching nights, and shuddered
when I looked at that only little one on whom
rough winds had never been allowed to blow,
the idol of her parents' hearts, so fair and
delicate, who must now venture out in a frail boat
on the wide stormy sea. I uttered a wild
prayer to God for her, full of sobs and anguish,
with tears that don't come often in a lifetime,
and then there followed a dead calm, in which I
saw every minute detail of the scene about me.
There had been no thought of removing the
breakfast, and with the rolling of the ship,
which was every moment becoming worse,
everything had fallen on the floor, and was
dashing about in all directions. Boxes, water-jugs,
plates, dishes, chairs, glasses, were pitching from
one end of the saloon to the other. Children
screaming, sailors shouting and cursing, and
loud above all there was the creaking of timbers,
and the sullen sound of water fast gaining upon
us in the hold of the ship, which groaned and
laboured like a living thing in agony.

Poor Mrs. F—— was in a terrible strait at this
moment. Her little boy was discovered helping
himself out of the medicine-chest, particularly
busy with the contents of a broken calomel
bottle. How pale she looked with her poor