calamity and danger are among the many circumstances which help to break down the distinctions of life into reasonable and helpful differences, and serve to bring out the cementing power of sympathy, which is the surest bond of social union. a common trouble does much to awaken a common interest; and so it proved with the saved remnant who pulled for their lives from the sarah ann. the captain, the cook, the mate, and the cabin-boy forgot for the time those ruling ideas of superior and inferior, which so frequently make great men tyrants and poor men obsequious, and as companions in tribulation endeavoured without distinction to manage the boat and effect a landing. but the task was no easy one, and had they been strangers to the island, in all probability they would have perished on the rocky shore; for lundy tolerates but one small beach, defying intrusion elsewhere by its rough, inaccessible cliffs, towering hundreds of feet above the sea. for that beach the seamen longed and strove, and their efforts were so far successful that they ran in amongst the breakers, where, despite their utmost efforts, the boat was capsized, and they had to struggle as best they could for a footing on the gritty strand.

'just!' exclaimed the 'prentice in a moody tone, as they stood on the shore wringing out their drenched clothes,—'just!'

'just what?' said stauncy, in a kinder tone than jim was accustomed to.

'just saved,' he replied; 'but i s'pose you reckoned on that when the brig was once off here.'

'why, to be sure,' rejoined the mate; 'if there was any chance for us, it was the lee of lundy, where nobody is more at home than ourselves.'

'certainly,' responded the captain; 'i made sure of a chance if we only rounded lametry; and here we are.'

'we've only got what we stand up in,' the 'prentice answered in a querulous and somewhat independent tone; 'i wonder who'll pay me for all i've lost.'

'you'll get as good a share as the rest,' said pickard; 'and i wonder, mister jim, what makes you so forward.'

'i've got as much right to speak as you,' he replied. 'i don't think we ought to be turned adrift this way, and lose everything; we ain't ought.'

'never mind him,' said the captain, apparently anxious to put an end to the dialogue; 'he's a saucy chap. a few hours' more pickling would have preserved him better. we'll get up to the top and rouse 'em up in the old keep;' and he turned towards the narrow path which wound up the mountain side.

the cotters resident on the bleak island received them kindly, and, having dried their clothes and satisfied their hunger, proposed a turn in for a few hours' rest.

'i don't want any rest,' said jim; 'i had a good sleep in one of the empty crates.'

'you had, eh?' replied pickard; 'that's where you were hiding so long, was it? how did you get a berth there, i wonder?'

'well, i was knocked up, and when the mate went down the fore-hatch i slipped after him.'

'i wish i'd pitched you overboard,' said stauncy hastily; 'and very much inclined i feel to slip you down the devil's lime kiln,[1] to spout your impudence to the gannets, or to the porpoises when they come in with the tide.'

[1] a singular hole so called, at the south-west point, about eighty yards square at the top, and 250 feet in depth, communicating by an outlet with the sea.

in fact, the 'prentice's disclosure of his sleeping quarters during the storm considerably discomposed the captain's serenity, calling up feelings whose first expression was anger; but, having lain down with the mate and cook, and spent an hour in reflection, he determined to proceed cautiously.

the morning broke with hopeful promise. a fresh, cold breeze, into which the gale had moderated, blew directly for the opposite quarter, as though the blustering tornado, having vented its passion, had turned repentant, and was now retracing its track with sober pace. there was still a tumbling sea on; but soon the bright blue sky and the sharp bracing air dispelled all omens suggested by the past, and a fleet of trawlers from clovelly was to be seen dotting the heaving bosom of the ocean in all directions.

a signal was hoisted which drew one of the smacks towards the island, and stauncy and his companions were consigned to the safe keeping of the master of a boat. the mate and pickard settled down in the stern-sheets, and engaged in a close and earnest conversation with the steersman, whilst the captain went over the story of the storm to the skipper, and then slipped forward to the bow, where jim ortop was seated on a coil of rope, gazing intently into the sky.

'you needn't mind about the things you've lost, jim,' said the captain; 'i'll rig you out again, and, if you behave yourself to my satisfaction, you shall have a guinea to boot, to sport with while ashore.'

the golden idea roused jim from his contemplations, and was far too large to be taken in at once; it upset him completely. whatever his thoughts and emotions may have been as he sat staring into vacuity, they were routed and sent to the gulls by this new gilded intruder. a guinea! he had scarcely ever seen one. extravagant and romantic ideas had always been conjured up when people talked in his hearing of that precious coin. he pictured it to his mind. he fancied that he felt it in his hand. it seemed as though the universe itself would be purchasable; and, looking up into the captain's face with an animated eye, he said, 'shall i fetch it, sir?'

'yes, jim; come to my house when we get to northam, and you shall have a guinea sure enough—that is, if you mind and behave yourself.'

the 'prentice did not reply. the prospect of possessing a guinea had gathered all his thoughts into one sentiment, all his sensations into one passion; and his deep-set eyes again settled into an earnest gaze on the swelling sea, as though he had been spellbound.

the captain saw that he had hit the nail on the head, as he expressed it to himself, and, leaving jim to his dreams, went aft with lighter heart than he expected.

'i wonder, mogford,' he said, 'where the other poor fellows are;' and then, addressing himself to the fishermen, asked whether anything had been seen of a boat with six men in it. but no one had heard or seen thereof; and, indeed, whilst stauncy was speaking, a wanderer on brunton sands picked up a portion of a boat's stern with sarah ann on it: so that the story is soon told. the jolly-boat had been swamped, or stove on the rocks, and the men who were borne away in her from the foundering brig soon followed the fated vessel to a watery grave. no human eye beheld that ocean funeral; no human voice bewailed them as they went to rest. the booming billows rang out their passing bell. the foam-draped waves joined hands to consign them to the deep. the moaning wind sang mournfully their requiem, and said farewell, as though the angry sea knew no remorse, and would never surrender its prey again.