Chapter 7 - Page 2

shaved and
dressed, they took a walk together, on the reef, conversing of their
situation and future proceedings. Bob then told Mark, for the first
time, that, in his opinion, there was the frame and the other materials
of a pinnace, or a large boat, somewhere in the hold, which it was
intended to put together, when the ship reached the islands, as a
convenience for cruising about among them to trade with the savages, and
to transport sandal-wood. The mate had never heard of this boat, but
acknowledged that a part of the hold-had been stowed while he was up at
Bristol, and it might have been taken in then. Bob confessed that he had
never seen it, though he had worked in the stevedore's gang; but was
confident he had heard Friend Abraham White and Captain Crutchely
talking of its dimensions and uses. According to his recollection it was
to be a boat considerably larger than the launch, and to be fitted with
masts and sails, and to have a half-deck. Mark listened to ah1 this
patiently, though he firmly believed that the honest fellow was
deceiving himself the whole time. Such a craft could scarcely be in the
ship, and he not hear of it, if he did not actually see it; though he
thought it possible that the captain and owners may have had some such
plan in contemplation, and conversed together on it, in Betts's
presence. As there were plenty of tools on board, however, by using
stuff of one sort or another, that was to be found in the ship, Mark
had strong hopes of their being able, between them, to construct, in the
course of time--though he believed a long time might be necessary--a
craft of some sort, that should be of sufficient stability to withstand
the billows of that ordinarily mild sea, and enable them to return to
their homes and friends. In conversing of things of this sort, in
religious observances, and in speculating on the probable fate of their
shipmates, did our mariners pass this holy day. Bob was sensibly
impressed with the pause in their ordinary pursuits, and lent himself to
the proper feelings of the occasion with a zeal and simplicity that gave
Mark great satisfaction; for, hitherto, while aware that his friend was
as honest a fellow as ever lived, in the common acceptation of such a
phrase, he had not supposed him in the least susceptible of religious
impressions. But the world had suddenly lost its hold on Betts, the
barrier offered by the vast waters of the Pacific, being almost as
impassable, in his actual circumstances, as that of the grave; and the
human heart turns to God in its direst distress, as to the only being
who can administer relief. It is when men are prosperous that they
vainly imagine they are sufficient for their own wants, and are most apt
to neglect the hand that alone can