For hours he slept there, lying there like a log, wrapped in the old sail, moving not a limb, but given up altogether to his refreshing slumber.  At length he waked, and, uncovering his head, looked around.  At first he thought that he was in the boat, then he grew bewildered, and it was only after a persistent effort of memory that he could recollect his position.

He looked all around, but nothing was visible.  There was nothing around him but darkness, intense and utter.  It was like the impenetrable veil that had enshrouded him during the night of his memorable voyage.  He could not see where his boat was.  A vague idea which he had of examining its fastening was dismissed.  He felt hungry, and found the biscuit box lying under one corner of the sail.  A few of these were sufficient to gratify his hunger.  Nothing more could be done, and he saw plainly that it would be necessary for him to wait there patiently until morning.  Once more, therefore, he rolled himself up in the sail, and tried to go to sleep.  But at first his efforts were vain.  The first fatigue had passed away, and now that he had been refreshed by sleep, his mind was too much occupied by thoughts of his past voyage to be readily lulled to sleep again.  He could not help wondering what Captain Corbet and the boys were doing.  That they were searching for him everywhere he well knew, but which direction they had chosen he could not tell.  And what was the place whither he had drifted?  He felt confident that it was the mouth of the Petitcodiac, and could not help wondering at the accuracy of his course; yet, while wondering, he modestly refrained from taking the credit of it to himself, and rather chose to attribute it to the wind and tide.  It was by committing himself so completely to their guidance, he thought, that he had done so well.

In the midst of such thoughts as these, Tom became aware of the howling of the wind and the dash of the waters.  Putting forth his head, he found that there was quite a storm arising; and this only added to his contentment.  No fear had he now, on this solid ground, of rising wind or swelling wave.  Even the fog had lost its terrors.  It was with feelings like these that he once more covered up his head from the night blast; and not long after he was once more asleep.

When he next awaked, it was day.  Starting to his feet, he looked around him, and shouted for joy.  The sky was clear.  The sun was rising, and its rays, coming from over the distant hills, were glittering over the surface of the water.  The wind had changed.  The fog had dispersed.

No sooner had he seen this than he was filled with curiosity to know where he was.  This did not look much like the mouth of the Petitcodiac.  He stared around with a very strange sensation.