under such circumstances.  Nevertheless, the plighted troth had not been actually given until Harry joined her on the islet, at a moment when she fancied herself abandoned to a fate almost as serious as death.  Rose had seen Mulford quit the brig, had watched the mode and manner of his escape, and in almost breathless amazement, and felt how dear to her he had become, by the glow of delight which warmed her heart, when assured that he could not, would not, forsake her, even though he remained at the risk of life.  She was now, true to the instinct of her sex, mostly occupied in making such a return for an attachment so devoted as became her tenderness and the habits of her mind.

As Mrs. Budd chose what she was pleased to term the `middle-watch,’ giving to Jack Tier and Rose her `dog-watch,’ the two last were first on duty.  It is scarcely necessary to say, the captain’s widow got the names of the watches all wrong, as she got the names of everything else about a vessel; but the plan was to divide the night equally between these quasi mariners, giving the first half to those who were first on the look-out, and the remainder to their successors.  It soon became so calm, that Jack left the helm, and came and sat by Rose, on the trunk, where they conversed confidentially for a long time.  Although the reader will, hereafter, be enabled to form some plausible conjectures on the subject of this dialogue, we shall give him no part of it here.  All that need now be said, is to add, that Jack did most of the talking, that his past life was the principal theme, and that the terrible Stephen Spike, he from whom they were now so desirous of escaping, was largely mixed up with the adventures recounted.  Jack found in his companion a deeply interested listener, although this was by no means the first time they had gone over together the same story and discussed the same events.  The conversation lasted until Tier, who watched the glass, seeing that its sands had run out for the last time, announced the hour of midnight.  This was the moment when Mulford should have been called, but when Mrs. Budd and Biddy Noon were actually awakened in his stead.

“Now, dear aunty,” said Rose, as she parted from the new watch to go and catch a little sleep herself, “remember you are not to awaken Harry first, but to call Tier and myself.  It would have done your heart good to have seen how sweetly he has been sleeping all this time.  I do not think he has stirred once since his head was laid on that bunch of sails, and there he is, at this moment, sleeping like an infant!”

“Yes,” returned the relict, “it is always so with your true maritime people.  I have been sleeping a great deal more soundly, the whole of the dog-watch, than I ever slept at home, in my own excellent bed.  But it’s your watch below, Rosy, and contrary to rule for you to stay on the deck, after you’ve been relieved.  I’ve heard this a thousand times.”

Rose was not sorry to lie down; and her head was scarcely on its pillow, in the cabin, before she was fast asleep.  As for Jack, he found a place among Mulford’s sails, and was quickly in the same state.