122 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTATN. they never failed to congratulate each other; — ^that the direction of thc wînd had never changed, and consequently must be carryîng them in the desîred course. Unless a storm should overtake them, they could continue their présent navigation without péril, and with every prospect of finding a port upon the shore where they might put in. Such were their mutual and acknowledged hopes ; but Dick secretly felt the misgiving lest, without a pilot, he might in his ignorance fail to find a harbour of refuge. Nevertheless, he would not suffer himself to meet trouble half-way, and kept up his spirits under the conviction that if difficulties came he should be strengthened to grapple with them or make his escape. Time passed on, and the çth of March arrived without material change in the condition of the atmosphère. The sky remained heavily burdened, and the wind, which occasîonally had abated for a few hours, had always returned with at least its former violence. The occasional rising of the mercury never encouraged Dick to anticîpate a permanent improvement in the weather, and he discerned only too plainly that brighter times at présent were not to be looked for. A startling alarm had more than once been caused by the sudden breakîng of storms in which thunderbolts had seemed to fall within a few cables* lengths of the schooner. On thèse occasions the torrents of rain had been so heavy that the ship had appeared to be in the very midst of a whirlpool of vapour, and it was impossible to see a yard ahead. The " Pilgrim " pîtched and roUed frîghtfully. Fortunately Mrs. Weldon could bear the motion without much personal inconvenience, and consequently was able to dévote her atten- tion to her little boy, who was a misérable sufferer. Cousin Benedict was as undisturbed as the cockroaches he was învestigating ; he hardly noticed the increasing madness ol either wind or wave, but went on with his studies as calmly as if he were in his own comfortable muséum at San Francisco. Moreover, ît was fortunate that the negroes did not suffer to any great degree îrom se^-svcViv^?»«>,^Tvd conse-
