But the Nancy Bell was not the only object of attraction and interest.
She was surrounded by icebergs in every direction—to the right, to the left, right in front, and astern—some little mites not bigger than cockle-shells in comparison with the larger ones, baby bergs, so to speak, and others as lofty as mountains, extending as far as the eye could reach to the horizon; the ship racing by them and threaded her way in and out between the moving masses with the dexterity of a Highlander executing the sword-dance. The wind was still blowing more than half a gale from the northward and westward, and the vessel was running before it under the fore staysail and mizzentop-sail, which had been dropped again with the reef points shaken out, making eight knots good, too, at that.
Where there was no ice, the rolling sea was of an intense ultramarine blue, reflecting the colour of the distant sky; while, as the sun came up higher, different tints were displayed by the icebergs, whose shape was as various as their sizes—bergs that in their gorgeous architecture and fairy magnificence, with fantastic peaks and airy pinnacles, which glittered now in the full light of day with all the varied colours of the rainbow, flashing out scintillations and radiances of violet and iris, purple and turquoise, and sapphire blue, emerald green and orange, blush rose and pink and red—all mingled with soft shades of crimson and carmine, and interspersed with gleams of gold and silver and a frosting over all of bright white light.
“Ah!” ejaculated Kate, uttering her thoughts aloud, so carried away was she by the vivid beauty of the scene, “those who haven’t seen an iceberg at sea at sunrise, have no idea of the grand loveliness of God’s handiwork in nature!”
“They look beautiful enough now, missy,” said Captain Dinks, who had come to her side unnoticed, and seemed much jollier than he had done the night before, when he thought the ship in her last extremity; “but we didn’t think them so a little while ago, when it looked as if the poor old Nancy Bell would lay her old bones amongst them!”
“Ah! Captain Dinks,” replied she, “there was One above looking after us then, as he is now!”
“You are right,” said he earnestly; “or we should never have escaped as we did; once or twice, when we grazed a berg, I thought it was all up with us.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Kate with a shudder, “it was a terrible night; and you and the poor fellows on deck must have found it bitterly cold.”
“Not a doubt of that,” said Captain Dinks laughing. “I was almost half-frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs! If it hadn’t been for the hot coffee our friend Snowball served out every two hours to warm us up, I don’t believe any of us would have been alive this morning. But here comes your father. How sly your were all to keep it so carefully concealed that he was in the navy; and I taking him all the time for a lubberly landsman! I’ll never forgive myself; for you must all have laughed at me, especially you, Miss Kate, and your roguish little sister. Ah! good morning, Mr Meldrum,” added the captain turning to that gentleman; “I was just thinking about you. I wanted to have a consultation about our course. My dead reckoning is all at sea, and I hardly can guess where we are now; but I trust we shall be able to get an observation of the sun at noon, and then we will be able to prick off our position on the chart.”
“I sincerely hope so,” said Mr Meldrum; “for I think we’re going far too much to the southward.”