confiding simplicity, and suffered their scrutiny with perfect acquiescence, winning them by his benignity. They now supposed that the ships had sailed out of the crystal firmament which bounded their horizon, or had descended from above on their ample wings, and that these marvellous beings were inhabitants of the skies.

WASHINGTON IRVING.

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.

SOUTHWARD with fleet of ice

Sailed the corsair Death;

Wild and fast blew the blast,
And the east wind was his breath.

His lordly ships of ice

Glistened in the sun :

On each side, like pennons wide,
Flashing crystal streamlets run.

His sails of white sea-mist

Dripped with silver rain;

But where he passed there were cast
Leaden shadows o'er the main.

Eastward from Campobello

Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed;
Three days or more seaward he bore,
Then, alas! the land wind failed.

Alas! the land wind failed,

And ice-cold grew the night;
And never more, on sea or shore,

Should Sir Humphrey see the light.

The moon and the evening star
Were hanging in the shrouds ;
Every mast, as it passed,

Seemed to rake the passing clouds.

They grappled with their prize,
At midnight black and cold!
As of a rock was the shock:
Heavily the ground swell rolled.

Southward through day and dark,
They drift in close embrace,

With mist and rain to the Spanish Main :
Yet there seems no change of place.

Southward, for ever southward,

They drift through dark and day
And like a dream, in the Gulf Stream

Sinking, vanish all away.

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

THE ARIEL' AMONG THE SHOALS.

PART I.

THE extraordinary activity of Griffith, which communicated itself with promptitude to the crew, was produced by a sudden alteration in the weather. In place of the well-defined streak along the horizon that has been already described, an immense body of misty light appeared to be moving in with rapidity from the ocean, while a distinct but distant roaring announced the sure approach of the tempest that had so long troubled the waters. Even Griffith, while thundering his orders through the trumpet, and urging the men by his cries to expedition, would pause for instants to cast anxious glances in the direction of the coming storm; and the faces of the

sailors who lay on the yards were turned instinctively towards the same quarter of the heavens, while they knotted the reefpoints, or passed the gaskets, that were to confine the unruly canvas to the prescribed limits.

The pilot, alone, in that confused and busy throng, where voice arose above voice, and cry echoed cry in quick succession, appeared as if he had no interest in the important stake. With his eyes steadily fixed on the approaching mist, and his arms folded together in composure, he stood calmly awaiting the result.

The ship had fallen off with her broadside to the sea, and was become unmanageable, and the sails were already brought into the folds necessary to her security, when the quick and heavy fluttering of canvas was thrown across the water with all the gloomy and chilling sensations that such sounds produce, where darkness and danger unite to appal the

seaman.

'The schooner has it!' cried Griffith; 'Barnstaple has held on, like himself, to the last moment-God send that the squall leave him cloth enough to keep him from the shore!'

'His sails are easily handled,' the commander observed, 'and she must be over the principal danger. We are falling off before it, Mr. Gray; shall we try a cast of the lead?'

The pilot turned from his contemplative posture, and moved slowly across the deck before he returned any reply to this question-like a man who not only felt that everything depended on himself, but that he was equal to the

emergency.

"Tis unnecessary,' he at length said, "twould be certain destruction to be taken aback, and it is difficult to say, within several points, how the wind may strike us.'

"Tis difficult no longer,' cried Griffith, 'for here it comes, and in right earnest !'

The rushing sounds of the wind were now indeed heard at hand, and the words had hardly passed the lips of the young lieutenant before the vessel bowed down heavily to one side,

and then, as she began to move through the water, rose again majestically to her upright position, as if saluting, like a courteous champion, the powerful antagonist with which she was about to contend. Not another minute elapsed before the ship was throwing the waters aside with a lively progress, and, obedient to her helm, was brought as near to the desired course as the direction of the wind would allow. The hurry and bustle on the yards gradually subsided, and the men slowly descended to the deck, all straining their eyes to pierce the gloom in which they were enveloped, and some shaking their heads in melancholy doubt, afraid to express the apprehensions they really entertained. All on board anxiously waited for the fury of the gale; for there were none so ignorant or inexperienced in that gallant frigate as not to know that they as yet only felt the infant efforts of the wind. Each moment, however, it increased in power, though so gradual was the alteration, that the relieved mariners began to believe that all their gloomy forebodings were not to be realized. During this short interval of uncertainty, no other sounds were heard than the whistling of the breeze, as it passed quickly through the mass of rigging that belonged to the vessel, and the dashing of the spray that began to fly from her bows like the foam of a cataract.

'It blows fresh,' cried Griffith, who was the first to speak in that moment of doubt and anxiety; 'but it is no more than a capful of wind after all. Give us elbow room and the right canvas, Mr. Pilot, and I'll handle the ship like a gentleman's yacht in this breeze.'

'Will she stay, think ye, under this sail?' said the low voice of the stranger.

'She will do all that man in reason can ask of wood and iron,' returned the lieutenant, but the vessel don't float the ocean that will tack under double-reefed topsails alone against a heavy sea. Help her with the courses, pilot, and you'll see her come round like a dancing master.'

'Let us feel the strength of the gale first,' returned the