Chapter Three.
Safe to Land.
As Adam Halliburt and his son sprang into the cabin, they saw in a small cot by the side of a larger one, a little girl, her light hair falling over her fair young neck. She lifted her head and gazed at them from her blue eyes with looks of astonishment mingled with terror.
“Is no one with you, my pretty maiden?” exclaimed Adam; “how came you to be left all alone here?”
“Ayah gone. I called, she no come back,” answered the child.
“This is no place for you, my little dear, we will take care of you,” said Adam, lifting her up and wrapping the bed clothes round her, for she was dressed only in her nightgown.
“Oh, let me go; I must stay here till my ayah comes back,” cried the child; yet she did not struggle, comprehending, it seemed, from the kind expression of Adam’s countenance, that he intended her no harm.
“The person you speak of won’t come back, I fear; so you must come with us, little maid, and if God wills we will carry you safely on shore,” answered Adam, folding the clothes tighter round the child, and grasping her securely in his left arm as a woman carries an infant, and leaving his right one at liberty, for this he knew he should require to hold on by, until having made his way across the heaving, slippery deck, he could take the necessary leap into the boat.
“It is wet and cold, we must cover you up,” he said, adding to himself, “The child would otherwise see a sight enough to frighten her young heart.”