AFTER THE STORM.
"Alive and on land. In the country, back a little from the coast, we
have found a shelter from the shipwreck. That we live at all is owing to
the bravery of a seaman who superintended the making of a raft after the
ship struck, and almost forced us to save our lives by risking them
upon it. The other passengers refused to go, and for a long time we
hesitated, but Ben Benson was so determined, that at last we trusted
every thing to his frail craft, which, alas! was all of our brave vessel
that ever reached the shore.
"I shudder even now, as I remember the fearful rush of waters around us
when our craft was cut loose from the sinking vessel. A hundred ghostly
forms looked down upon us from the crowded stern, dreading the death for
us, which too surely fell on them.
"It was a terrible venture. The storm still raging, the sea rising high,
and breakers howling on either hand, like hungry tigers tearing at their
chains. It all seems like a hideous dream to me now, but I remember one
thing that kept the life in my heart, when it seemed turning to stone.
In the midst of the storm, as the raft reeled and plunged over the
lightning-stricken waves, I found myself gathered to his bosom, and
while the warmth of that embrace reached my heart, I heard such words as
sent the blood thrilling like a gush of wine, back through all my veins.
In the rage and whirl of the storm, while we were quivering in the very
jaws of death, James Harrington uttered in many a wild word, the love
that I had felt to be mine before. He seems to have forgotten it now,
for since we have been housed safely on land, with the breath of a dozen
orange groves awaking nothing but sweet emotions, he seems to have lost
the passion of those delirious words, but that they are burned like
enamel on my heart, I might fancy them a dream and nothing more.
"Why is this? What makes him so reserved and yet so gently courteous.
There is no impediment to free speech. Are we not equals in birth--and
as for fortune, thank Heaven, I am rich enough for both. Why should he
almost shun me then, and spend so much time wandering along the coast,
looking upon the waves that have almost proved fatal to us? These
thoughts make me very sad. Does he repent, or has a passion that seemed
so strong when death was nigh, gone out with the storm that witnessed
its first utterance."