The boy was nearly washed overboard, but he managed to catch hold of the rail, and, with great presence of mind, stuck his knees into the bulwarks.  Kindred, our boatswain, seeing his danger, rushed forward to save him, but was knocked down by the return wave, from which he emerged gasping.  The coil of rope, on which Captain Lecky and Mabelle were seated, was completely floated by the sea.  Providentially, however, he had taken a double turn round his wrist with a reefing point, and, throwing his other arm round Mabelle, held on like grim death; otherwise nothing could have saved them.  She was perfectly self-possessed, and only said quietly, ’Hold on, Captain Lecky, hold on!’ to which he replied, ‘All right.’  I asked her afterwards if she thought she was going overboard, and she answered, ‘I did not think at all, mamma, but felt sure we were gone.’  Captain Lecky, being accustomed to very large ships, had not in the least realised how near we were to the water in our little vessel, and was proportionately taken by surprise.  All the rest of the party were drenched, with the exception of Muriel, whom Captain Brown held high above the water in his arms, and who lost no time in remarking, in the midst of the general confusion, ‘I’m not at all wet, I’m not.’  Happily, the children don’t know what fear is.  The maids, however, were very frightened, as some of the sea had got down into the nursery, and the skylights had to be screwed down.  Our studding-sail boom, too, broke with a loud crack when the ship broached-to, and the jaws of the fore-boom gave way.

Soon after this adventure we all went to bed, full of thankfulness that it had ended as well as it did; but, alas, not, so far as I was concerned, to rest in peace.  In about two hours I was awakened by a tremendous weight of water suddenly descending upon me and flooding the bed.  I immediately sprang out, only to find myself in another pool on the floor.  It was pitch dark, and I could not think what had happened; so I rushed on deck, and found that, the weather having moderated a little, some kind sailor, knowing my love of fresh air, had opened the skylight rather too soon; and one of the angry waves had popped on board, deluging the cabin.

I got a light, and proceeded to mop up, as best I could, and then endeavoured to find a dry place to sleep in.  This, however, was no easy task, for my own bed was drenched, and every other berth occupied.  The deck, too, was ankle-deep in water, as I found when I tried to get across to the deck-house sofa.  At last I lay down on the floor, wrapped up in my ulster, and wedged between the foot stanchion of our swing bed and the wardrobe athwart-ship; so that as the yacht rolled heavily, my feet were often higher than my head.  Consequently, what sleep I snatched turned into nightmare, of which the fixed idea was a broken head from the three hundredweight of lead at the bottom of our bed, swinging wildly from side to side and up and down, as the vessel rolled and