and could speak French, Spanish, and Italian; but I had never studied German, and this man was a Hollander.  Of course, I understood but a word here and there, and not sufficient to gain any intelligence from what he said, or to make him comprehend me, except when I asked for my father.  Then he understood me, and pointing across the cabin, gave me to know that my father was with me in the the ship, though very sick.

“Small portions of nourishing food were now offered at frequent intervals; and, as my appetite came back keenly, and I took the scanty supply that was allowed me, I gradually gained strength.  In a week I was able to leave my berth, and to walk, with the assistance of the captain of the vessel, for he it was whom I had first seen on the restoration of consciousness, to the state-room in which my father lay.  Oh! how he had changed!  I hardly recognized him.  His face had grown long and thin, his eyes were sunken far back in his head, and his hair, that had been scarcely touched with the frosts of age when we left New York, was white!  He did not know me, although he looked me feebly in the face.  The sound of my voice seemed to rouse him a little, but he only looked at me with a more earnest gaze, and then closed his eyes.  From this time I was his constant nurse, and was soon blessed with finding him gradually recovering.  But as health came back to his body, it was too appallingly visible that his reason had been shattered.  He soon came to know me, to speak to me, and to caress me, with more than his usual fondness; but his mind was—­alas! too evidently—­imbecile.  As this state of mental alienation showed itself more and more distinctly, on his gradually acquiring physical strength, it seemed as if the painful fact would kill me.  But we are formed to endure great extremes of bodily and mental anguish.  The bow will bend far before it breaks.

“After I had recovered so as to leave my berth entirely, and when, I suppose, the captain thought it would be safe to question me, he brought a map, and indicated plainly enough that he wished me to point out the country I was from.  I laid my hand upon the United States.  He looked surprised.  I glanced around at the ship, and then pointed to the map with a look of inquiry.  He placed his finger near the Island of St. Helena.  It was now my turn to look surprised.  By signs I wished him to tell me how we should get back; and he indicated, plainly enough, that he would put us on board of the first vessel he met that was returning either to Europe or the United States, or else would leave us at the Cape of Good Hope.  But day after day passed, and we met no returning vessel.  Before we reached the Cape, a most terrific storm came on, which continued many days, in which the ship lost two of her masts, and was driven far south.  It seemed to me as if my father and I had been doomed to perish in the ocean, and the sea would not, therefore, relinquish its prey.  It was ten or twelve days before the