"Well, between you and I, I was a little skeery, for fear I should find my mate at the helm."
"Yes, but you don't mean to say woman is a craft sailing without a compass, do you? that is, minus a heart?"
"Aye, aye, but it's hard to get in their wake. I never met but one whole-souled woman in my life, and she has gone--where such as she do go. Ah, that was a hard time! I was the only one saved of two hundred!"
"How was that, Sampson? come, spin us that yarn."
"Land ho! land ho!" hailed the lookout, and every eye welcomed Manilla, as they ran in for repairs, after cruising about for months without taking a drop of oil. Harry was delighted with the prospect before him, and laying the little curiosity, which would remind him of a sad event in his voyage, away with his bible, he entered upon the duties before him with his whole heart, realizing the visions of his earlier days, and gaining a thorough knowledge of--the life of a sailor boy.
CHAPTER VI SOME DAYS ARE BORN OF SORROW
"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrows are unknown."
ANONYMOUS
"Through sorrow's night, and danger's path,
Amid the deepening gloom,
Ye children of a heavenly king
Are marching to the tomb."
H. KIRKE WHITE
It is a destiny, that every life be, to a greater or less degree, fraught with that heart-purifying element, which we term sorrow. And who would have it otherwise? Who would glide passively along the bright river of smiles, without one taste of that chiefest of disciplines, sorrow? How grateful should we be to Him who has permitted us to drink of the same cup with his only Son! for he was a "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Who is so blind that will not see the kind designs of our Father, in the disposition of those works of his hands which he pronounced good. Truly His eye is all-seeing; the overflow of his tender mercies toward the children of men are unbounded. What cell of goodness is there within the human heart, of which the breath of sorrow cannot raise the valve? In a word, what countless numbers of souls have been stayed in their mad career, have been saved from eternal destruction, through the chastening rod of the Lord.
It was the morning after the sailing of the Nautilus; the Sea-flower had arisen with the sun, and calling for old Nep, as was her wont, to accompany her on her morning's walk, she tripped lightly along, humming a farewell to the last altheas, as they nodded their shrivelled heads, in view of their departure; but their words of adieu were made brief, by a voice as of one in distress; and coming near, it proved to be the musical Vingo, trilling the wild melodies of his old Virginia days.