was sech a lovun thing.  An’ so I set out, walkun this way, for a spurt, an’ then t’ other way, keepun up mostly a Nor-norwest, so well as I could:  sometimes away round th’ open, an’ more times round a lump of ice, an’ more times, agen, off from one an’ on to another, every minute.  I did n’ feel hungry, for I drinked fresh water off th’ ice.  No schooner! no schooner!

    [Footnote K:  Skinned.]

“Bumby the sun was goun down:’t was slow work feelun my way along, an’ I did n’ want to look about:  but then agen I thowt God ’ad made it to be sid; an’ so I come to, an’ turned all round, an’ looked; an’ surely it seemed like another world, someway,’t was so beautiful,—­yellow, an’ different sorts o’ red, like the sky itself in a manner, an’ flashun like glass.  So then it comed night:  an’ I thowt I should n’ go to bed, an’ I may forget my prayers, an’ so I’d, mubbe, best say ’em right away; an’ so I doned:  ‘Lighten our darkness,’ and others we was oosed to say:  an’ it comed into my mind the Lard said to Saint Peter, ‘Why did n’ ’ee have faith?’ when there was nawthun on the water for un to go on; an’ I had ice under foot,—­’t was but frozen water, but’t was frozen,—­an’ I thanked Un.

“I could n’ help thinkun o’ Brigus an’ them I’d laved in it, an’ then I prayed for ’em; an’ I could n’ help cryun, a’most:  but then I give over agen, an’ would n’ think, ef I could help it; on’y tryun to say an odd psalm, all through singun-psalms an’ other, for I knowed a many of ’em by singun wi’ Patience, on’y now I cared more about ’em:  I said that one,—­

  ‘Sech as in ships an’ brickle barks
    Into the seas descend,
  Their merchantun, through fearful floods,
    To compass an’ to end: 
  They men are force-put to behold
    The Lard’s works, what they be;
  An’ in the dreadful deep the same
    Most marvellous they see.’

An’ I said a many more, (I can’t be accountable how many I said,) an’ same uns many times over:  for I would keep on; an’ ’ould sometimes sing ’em very loud in my poor way.

“A poor baste (a silver fox ‘e was) comed an’ looked at me; an’ when I turned round, he walked away a piece, an’ then ‘e comed back, an’ looked.

“So I found a high piece, wi’ a wall of ice atop for shelter, ef it comed on to blow; an’ so I stood, an’ said, an’ sung, I knowed well I was on’y driftun away.

“It was tarrible lonely in the night, when night comed:  it’s no use!  ’T was tarrible lonely:  but I ‘ouldn’ think, ef I could help it; an’ I prayed a bit, an’ kep’ up my psalms, an’ varses out o’ the Bible, I’d a-larned.  I had n’ a-prayed for sleep, but for wakun all night, an’ there I was, standun.