As for the professor, he lay propped up at his master's feet, and looking forth upon the mighty war of wind and wave. The sight had subdued him. He was content only to exist and enjoy.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE STORM.
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the northeast;
The snow fell hissing in the brine;
And the billows foamed like yeast.
Down came the storm and smote amain,
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused like a frightened steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.
And fast through the midnight, dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost the vessel swept,
Toward the reef of Norman's Woe.
—Wreck of the "Hesperus."
Ishmael remained upon the quarterdeck, gazing out upon the stormy glory of the sea and sky until he was interrupted by the most prosaic, though the most welcome of sounds—that of the dinner-bell.
Then he went below.
On his way to the saloon he stopped at the entrance of the second cabin; called one of the stewards, and while putting a piece of money in his hand, requested him to take a bowl of soup up to the old man on deck, and to see that he wanted nothing.
Then Ishmael paid a visit to each of his suffering companions.