CHAPTER VIII.
JACK'S SEA-DADDY.
Midshipman Jack was among the first on deck. All he could see was the star-lit, wind-tossed waves that, at each dip of the good ship's prow, rose like mountains right ahead, or, as she leaned to leeward, seemed ready to engulf her.
But away on the port bow he could now and then catch a glimpse of huge black boulders, over which spume was dashing white and high. These boulders were the rocks on which the good Gurnet might soon be dashed, and go to pieces.
In each lull of the gale, even already, the boom of the breaking waves could be heard—a sound that had been to many and many a sailor ere now the last he had ever heard on earth.
Jack began to say his prayers, and to think of those at home. One and all of his friends and relations seemed to rise up before his mind's eye at this moment, and seemed to speak to him, to beckon to him, to pray for him.
Poor Jack! his brain was all in a whirl, but suddenly he remembered that he was guilty of a breach of faith. He had no business on deck. The surgeon had given him orders to remain below. He must hasten down, therefore, though it did seem dreadful to be drowned in the dark—drowned like a rat in a drain. The companionship of even those brightly-shining stars would have made death appear less terrible. But—yes, he must go below. The first duty of sailor or soldier is obedience.
He found his way at last into the ward-room, in which the lamp was still burning, and threw himself down on the sofa.
He could pray; ah! there was comfort in that. After he had said his prayers—no, but prayed his prayers; for there is a deal of difference between saying a prayer and praying it: in the one it comes welling up from the heart itself, in the other it is but lip-worship—after he had prayed, he began to repeat a psalm to himself, one that he had learned at his mother's knee:—
"God is our refuge and our strength,
In straits a present aid;
Therefore, although the earth remove,
We will not be afraid:
Though hills amidst the seas be cast;
Though waters roaring make."
It was just at this line that the young sailor boy's thoughts were wafted away and away to hills and glens and streams and woods, all basking in the sweet light of the summer sun.