This summons was not likely to be neglected.  All arose in haste, and the word “water” was murmured from every lip.  Biddy had less self-command than the others, and she was heard saying aloud,—­“Och! and did n’t I dhrame of the blessed springs and wells of Ireland the night, and haven’t I dhrunk at ’em all? but now it’s over, and I am awake, no good has’t done me, and I’m ready to die for one dhrap of wather.”

That drop soon came, however, and with it the blessed relief which such a boon bestows.  Mulford had barely time to explain his arrangements, and to place the party on their knees, along his little reservoir and the gutter which led to it, when the pattering of the rain advanced along the sea, with a deep rushing sound.  Presently, the uplifted faces and open mouths caught a few heavy straggling drops, to cool the parched tongues, when the water came tumbling down upon them in a thousand little streams.  There was scarcely any wind, and merely the skirt of a large black cloud floated over the wreck, on which the rain fell barely one minute.  But it fell as rain comes down within the tropics, and in sufficient quantities for all present purposes.  Everybody drank, and found relief, and, when all was over, Mulford ascertained by examination that his receptacle for the fluid was still full to overflowing.  The abstinence had not been of sufficient length, nor the quantity taken of large enough amount, to produce injury, though the thirst was generally and temporarily appeased.  It is probable that the coolness of the hour, day dawning as the cloud moved past, and the circumstance that the sufferers were wetted to their skins, contributed to the change.

“Oh, blessed, blessed wather!” exclaimed Biddy, as she rose from her knees; “America, afther all, isn’t as dhry a country as some say.  I’ve niver tasted swater wather in Ireland itself!”

Rose murmured her thanksgiving in more appropriate language.  A few exclamations also escaped Mrs. Budd, and Jack Tier had his sententious eulogy on the precious qualities of sweet water.

The wind rose as the day advanced, and a swell began to heave the wreck with a power that had hitherto been dormant.  Mulford understood this to be a sign that there had been a blow at some distance from them, that had thrown the sea into a state of agitation, which extended itself beyond the influence of the wind.  Eagerly did the young mate examine the horizon, as the curtain of night arose, inch by inch, as it might be, on the watery panorama, in the hope that a vessel of some sort or other might be brought within the view.  Nor was he wholly disappointed.  The strange sail seen the previous evening was actually there; and what was more, so near as to allow her hull to be distinctly visible.  It was a ship, under her square canvas, standing from between divided portions of the reef, as if getting to the northward, in order to avoid the opposing current of the Gulf Stream.  Vessels bound to Mobile, New Orleans,