The sea, indeed! I have
seen the sea come on board me, and clear the deck fore and aft, but it
didn't come in the shape of a cupful o' water and a spoonful o' foam."
Here David's wrath and contempt were interrupted by Jack singing
waggishly at his work,
"Cease--rude Boreas--blustering--railer!!"
At which sly hit David was pleased, and burst into a loud, boisterous
laugh.
Lucy put her hands to her ears. "Oh, don't! don't! this is worse than
your blasphemies--laughing on the brink of eternity; these are not
men--they are devils."
"Do you hear that, Jack? Come, you behave!" roared David.
A faint snarl from Talboys. The water had penetrated him, and roused
him from a state of sick torpor; he lay in a tidy little pool some
eight inches deep.
The boat was bailed and lightened, but Lucy's fears were not set at
rest. What was to hinder the recurrence of the same danger, and with
more fatal effect? She timidly asked David's permission to let her
keep the sea out. Instead of snubbing her as she expected, David
consented with a sort of paternal benevolence tinged with incredulity.
She then developed her plan; it was, that David, Jack, and she should
sit in a triangle, and hold the tarpaulin out to windward and fence
the ocean out. Jack, being summoned aft to council, burst into a
hoarse laugh; but David checked him.
"There is more in it than you see, Jack--more than she sees, perhaps.
My only doubt is whether it is possible; but you can try.
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