weather, and she took in a good deal of water on this occasion. On the
fourth day it fell calm, and Captain Hudson, having examined the well and
found three feet of water, ordered the men to the pumps.

After working through one watch the well was sounded again, and the water
was so much reduced that the gangs were taken off; and the ship being now
becalmed and the weather lovely, the men were allowed to dance upon deck
to the boatswain's fiddle.

While this pastime went on, the sun, large and red, reached the horizon,
and diffused a roseate light over the entire ocean.

Not one of the current descriptions of heaven approached the actual
grandeur and beauty of the blue sky, flecked with ruby and gold, and its
liquid mirror that lay below, calm, dimpled and glorified by that
translucent, rosy tint.

While the eye was yet charmed with this enchanting bridal of the sea and
sky, and the ear amused with the merry fiddle and the nimble feet that
tapped the sounding deck so deftly at every note, Cooper, who had been
sounding the well, ran forward all of a sudden and flung a thunderbolt in
the midst.

"A LEAK!"

CHAPTER X.


THE fiddle ended in mid-tune, and the men crowded aft with anxious faces.