Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/223

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 217 CHAPTER XV. "I beg, good Heaven, with just desires, What need, not luxury, requires ; Give me, with sparing hands, but moderate wealth, A little honour, and enough of health ; Free from the busy city life, Near shady groves and purling streams confined, A faithful friend, a pleasing wife ; And give me all in one, give a contented mind." ANONYMOUS. MARK and Bridget remained at the Reef a week, entirely alone. To them the time seemed but a single day ; and so completely were they engrossed with each other, and their present happiness, that they almost dreaded the hour of return. Everything was visited, however, even to the abandoned anchor, and Mark made a trip to the eastward, carrying his wife out into the open water, in that direction. But the ship and the crater gave Bridget the greatest hap piness. Of these she never tired, though the first gave her the most pleasure. A ship was associated with all her earliest impressions of Mark; on board that very ship she had been married ; and now it formed her home, tempora rily, if not permanently. Bridget had been living so long beneath a tent, and in savage huts, that the accommoda tions of the Rancocus appeared like those of a palace. They were not inelegant even, though it was not usual, in that period of the republic, to fit up vessels with a magnificence little short of royal yachts, as is done at present. In the way of convenience, however, our ship could boast of a great deal. Her cabins were on deck, or under a poop, and consequently enjoyed every advantage of light and air. Beneath were store-rooms, still well supplied with many articles of luxury, though time was beginning to make its usual inroads on their qualities. The bread was not quite as sound as it was once, nor did the teas retain all their strength and flavour. But the sugar was just as sweet as VOL. I. 19