THE CHAKMS OP NIGHT. 15 



who has learned to mount a vessel's rigging. In the 

 afternoon it is an especially pleasant post ; for the 

 broad shadow of the topsail begins to fall aft, and 

 the elevated solitude is screened from the rays of the 

 too fervid sun. 



Night, too, had charms of its own. The pleasant 

 breath of the steady trade-wind blew with a refresh- 

 ing coohiess over the level sea, breaking its surface 

 into ripples and wavelets, that washed, with a whisper- 

 ing sound, along the counter of the ship. The ladies 

 would linger on the quarter-deck till late ; and 

 cheerful conversation, innocent mirth, and mutual 

 congratulations and anticipations connected with the 

 land whose distance was diminishing with winged 

 speed, beguiled the hours. The moon, '' walking in 

 brightness," poured down a flood of soft light on the 

 ship and the wide sea around, putting out the stars 

 above, but making amends by the thousand mimic 

 ones that were momentarily forming below by the 

 reflection of her silver face in the dancing, breaking 

 wave-crests. Sometimes we watched the phospho- 

 rescent flashings of the sea, and the brilliant sparks 

 that went and came among the curdled milkiness 

 beneath the stern, stirred and whirled by the action 

 of the rudder; or sometimes we would walk into 

 the forepart of the ship, and see the same curious 

 phenomena to still more advantage, where the bows 

 dived into the sea, and threw off the luminous foam 

 on either side. Or from the same spot we would 

 gaze aloft, and admire the sweUing canvass, partly 

 white as snow in the glancing moonbeam, partly in 

 deepest shadow ; while each sail stretched and bellied 



