ous wheels that beat them into foam, wheels strivhig
with the contending flood, on one side deep in water
and on the other vainly grasping at the rushing tide
below. The jerkings now and then of the ship
betokened a risings sea. Cio;ars and sentiment were
abandoned, for here was the beginning of a long unrest.
Neither sighings, nor the quickening heart-beat of
hope, neither the memories of loved ones left behhid,
nor the brilliant aspirations of the future, nor even
the solemn thought of thus being brought into the
more immediate presence of my maker could prevent
the rising within my bosom of sensations foreign to
meditation. I tried to appear indifferent ; as the evil
increased I attempted even to smile, but it was a
ghastly business.
As the wind grew boisterous, and the motion of the vessel more palpably uneven, all on board, save the favored few who had neither conscience nor stomach, sousfht retirement. Some thouo-ht to brave down the unbidden rising within by moving briskly about and nibbling a cracker instead of eating supper and going to bed. "You can walk it off," they said, "do not give up to it." I noticed, now and then, that these would suddenly disappear, and when next seen ill their determined perambulations, they looked paler and not altogether happy. Some sat down to table and with affected nonchalance and flourish of knife and fork ,and pronounced orders for food, courageously began to eat; but soon a cloud overspread their faatures, a careworn expression as of some internal trouble, until at last sickness overcoming sensitive- ness, one person after another would rise hastily from the table, clasp one hand on his mouth and the other on his waistcoat, dart for the door, make for the guards, and there unbosom his burdened breast to the fishes. Indeed, my own food was as restless within me as was Poseidon in the bowels of his father Cronos.
Few remained on deck that night to witness the
