During one of the vivid flashes of lightning the captain observed Glynn Proctor standing near the starboard gangway, and, waiting for the next flash, he made a signal to him to come to the spot where he stood. Glynn understood it, and in a few seconds was at his commander’s side.
“Glynn,” my boy, said the latter, “you won’t be wanted on deck for some time. There’s little to be done now. Go down and see what Ailie’s about, poor thing. She’ll need a little comfort. Say I sent you.”
Without other reply than a nod of the head, Glynn sprang to the companion-hatch, followed by the captain, who undid the fastenings to let him down and refastened them immediately, for the sea was washing over the stern continually.
Glynn found the child on her knees in the cabin with her face buried in the cushions of one of the sofas. He sat down beside her and waited until she should have finished her prayer; but as she did not move for some time he laid his hand gently on her shoulder. She looked up with a happy smile on her face.
“Oh, Glynn, is that you? I’m so glad,” she said, rising, and sitting down beside him.
“Your father sent me down to comfort you, my pet,” said Glynn, taking her hand in his and drawing her towards him.
“I have got comfort already,” replied the child; “I’m so very happy, now.”
“How so, Ailie? who has been with you?”
“God has been with me. You told me, Glynn, that there wasn’t much danger, but I felt sure that there was. Oh! I never heard such terrible noises, and this dreadful tossing is worse than ever I felt it—a great deal. So I went down on my knees and prayed that God, for Christ’s sake would save us. I felt very frightened, Glynn. You can’t think how my heart beat every time the thunder burst over us. But suddenly—I don’t know how it was—the words I used to read at home so often with my dear aunts came into my mind; you know them, Glynn, ‘Call upon Me in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’ I don’t know where I read them. I forget the place in the Bible now; but when I thought of them I felt much less frightened. Do you think it was the Holy Spirit who put them into my mind? My aunts used to tell me that all my good thoughts were given to me by the Holy Spirit. Then I remembered the words of Jesus, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,’ and I felt so happy after that. It was just before you came down. I think we shall not be lost. God would not make me feel so happy if we were going to be lost, would He?”
“I think not, Ailie,” replied Glynn, whose conscience reproached him for his ignorance of the passages in God’s word referred to by his companion, and who felt that he was receiving rather than administering comfort. “When I came down I did not very well know how I should comfort you, for this is certainly the most tremendous gale I ever saw, but somehow I feel as if we were in less danger now. I wish I knew more of the Bible, Ailie. I’m ashamed to say I seldom look at it.”