Chapter 14 - Page 2

dependancy on others for happiness.
Then it is that he yields to sentiments with which he trifled, in the
wantonness of abundance, and is glad to seek relief in the sympathies of
his kind. A community of hazard makes a community of interest, whether
person or property composes the stake. Perhaps a meta-physical and a too
literal, reasoner might add, that, as in such situations each one is
conscious the condition and fortunes of his neighbour are the mere indexes
of his own, they acquire value in his eyes from their affinity to himself.
If this conclusion be true, Providence has happily so constituted the best
of the species, that the sordid feeling is too latent to be discovered;
and least of all was any one of the three, who passed the first hours of
the night around the cabin table of the "Royal Caroline," to be included

in so selfish a class. The nature of the intercourse, which had rendered
the first hours of their acquaintance so singularly equivocal, appeared to
be forgotten in the freedom of the moment; or, if it were remembered at
all, it merely served to give the young seaman additional interest in the
eyes of the females, as much by the mystery of the circumstances as by the
evident concern he had manifested in their behalf.

The bell had struck eight; and the hoarse long-drawn call, which summoned
the sleepers to the deck, was heard, before either of the party seemed
aware of the lateness of the hour.

"It is the middle watch," said Wilder, smiling at he observed that
Gertrude started at the strange sounds, and sat listening, like a timid
doe that catches the note of the hunter's horn. "We seamen are not always
musical, as you may judge by the strains of the spokesman on this
occasion. There are, however, ears in the ship to whom his notes are even
more discordant than to your own."

"You mean the sleepers?" said Mrs Wyllys.

"I mean the watch below. There is nothing so sweet to the foremast mariner
as his sleep; for it is the most precarious of all his enjoyments: on the
other hand, perhaps, it is the most treacherous companion the Commander
knows."

"And why is the rest of the superior so much less grateful than that of
the common man?"

"Because he pillows his head on responsibility."

"You are young, Mr Wilder, for a trust like this you bear."

"It is a service which makes us all prematurely old."

"Then, why not quit it?" said Gertrude, a little hastily.

"Quit it!" he replied, gazing at her intently, for an instant, while he
suspended his reply. "It would be to me like quitting the air we breathe."

"Have you so long been devoted