floes from passing.

To the northward, the sea was much more open. Gardiner and Daggett both
thought, as they gazed in that direction, that it would be easy enough to
take a vessel through the difficulties of the navigation, and that a good
run of eight-and-forty hours would carry her quite beyond the crowded ice.
This sight awakened some regrets in the two masters, that they were not
then in a condition to depart.

"I am almost sorry that we have made a holiday of the Sunday," said
Daggett, seating himself on a point of rock, to get a little rest after so
fatiguing an ascent. "Every minute of time is precious to men in our
situation."

"Every minute of time is precious to all men, Captain Daggett, in another
and a still more important sense, if they did but know it," put in
Stimson, with a zealous freedom, and a Christian's earnestness.

"I understand you, Stephen, and will not gainsay it. But a sealin' v'y'ge
is no place, after all, for a man to give himself up to Sabbaths and
religion."

"All places are good, sir, and all hours Sabbaths, when the heart is in
the true state. God is on this naked rock, as he is on the Vineyard; and a
thought, or a syllable, in his praise, on this mountain, are as pleasant
to him as them that arise from churches and priests."

"I believe it is, at least, a mistake in policy to give the men no day of
rest," said Roswell, quietly. "Though not prepared to carry matters as far
as my friend Stephen here. I agree with him entirely in _that_."