Nov.] 



A SICK WIFE. 



349 



around us like a polished mirror. The topsail was settled on the cap, 

 the main-peak dropped, and the ensign at half-mast ; and each of them 

 seemed to sleep, or rather to droop, in silent sorrow. We had just 

 parted with the south-east trade-winds. 



These solemnities were scarce completed, when my brother-in-law 

 came to me with the heart-rending intelligence that his sister was 

 dying ! My cup of affliction now seemed to be full — my bosom was 

 more than full — I felt a suffocating sensation in my throat, which pre- 

 cluded the possibility of speech. I turned to follow him aft, when one 

 of the sailors told me that William Baker and George Strong were 

 both dying, and wished to see me. I was now, for a few moments, 

 completely unmanned, and gave free vent to my feelings, throwing my 

 arms around her brother's neck, 



" And, like a school-boy, blubbered on his bosom." 



A dying wife on one hand — two dying seamen on the other — both 

 claims imperative — both urged by duty — one by the tenderest affection. 

 For some moments I hesitated, and knew not how to decide. Self 

 had to yield. I motioned the brother to return to the fair sufferer in 

 the cabin, while I descended into the forecastle, where I found the 

 two men alluded to raving like maniacs, under the influence of deli- 

 rium, caused by the raging fever, which had again set in with ten- 

 fold violence. Finding, however, on examining their situation, that 

 they were not so low as they had been reported to be, I left them, and 

 hastened aft to my suffering wife, who had just come out of a fit of the 

 fever, and was now falling into a doze. 



As I approached her bedside, I heard her say, " Oh, Benjamin is 

 with those poor sick men, or he would not have been absent so long. 

 I fear that something is the matter — they must be getting worse." I 

 then spoke to her, and asked her if she was sensible of being any 

 worse herself. " I think I am," was her reply. " But how are the 

 poor sailors ? How are Samuel Geery, and Daniel Spinney, and all 

 the rest of the sick ?" I answered, evasively, that they were about 

 the same as they were in the morning. " Ah, me !" she replied, " what 

 would poor Geery's mother do, if she knew that her son was so sick 

 on the wide ocean ; it would almost make her crazy. I heard her 

 say, only a day or two before we sailed, while she was making some 

 shirts and things for Samuel, that it appeared to her as if she was 

 making a shroud for him." I told my wife that affection often con- 

 jured up such phantoms of the imagination, and begged her not to 

 fatigue herself with talking ; but she gave her brother directions, as 

 usual, to carry refreshments to the patients in the forecastle. 



I now found that Mr. Hunt was so low that he was unable to turn 

 himself in bed, except when the fever was on him ; at which time he 

 would rave in the most boisterous manner. During those paroxysms 

 of the fever, his flesh, like that of my wife, was so extremely hot that 

 it almost burnt my hand to touch any part of the surface of his body ; 

 while the skin was so excessively dry that it seemed on the point of 

 cracking. 



