His thoughts went to Dolly. If he died, what would become of her? Not for many days yet, even supposing the other boats should make their way to land or be rescued by a passing ship, would the news of the “Meteor’s” loss reach her; and he thought of her praying night and morning for him, straining her fond eyes into the dim future, where the coming summer was, with all its flowers and its sunshine; where the happy day was that should bring him to her. If the news of the shipwreck ever reached her, how would her gentle spirit support the blow! But worse would it be if she remained ignorant of her loss; because in that case she would live on in hope for months and months, wakening every morning with the idea that--To-day he may come! to-day he may come! until hope sickened and despair should bring cruel assurance of eternal separation--the more unendurable because she should not know _why_ he did not come--whether he were living or dead--whether he were true or false to her! Oh for the power of giving peace to that manly unoffending heart! We shed tears, and well we may, God knows, over the privations of shipwrecked men, over the hunger and thirst and the mortal bodily agonies of poor souls doomed to die a lingering and shocking death in open boats, storm-tossed, or baking in breathless calms under the burning eye of the sun; but do we think of that deeper misery of theirs--that poignant mental torture compared to which the sufferings of the flesh are as naught--the thoughts of those they shall see no more--of wives, and sisters, and mothers, and little children, many of whom may perchance never hear the story of their fate, and can have no tear for the famine and the thirst that wasted the flesh off their skins and submitted them to greater torture than the heart can bear to think of? Holdsworth had believed that the sufferings of the boy would engross all his thoughts in himself, and that though he might miss he would not cry for his mother. But he was deceived; for, no sooner had the little fellow discovered that she was gone from her place in the bottom of the boat, than he uttered a sharp cry, and asked Holdsworth where his mamma was. Holdsworth took him upon his knee, but could not answer. The child persisted in his inquiries, looking the while suspiciously and eagerly about him, particularly over the stern, where he had remembered seeing the actor disappear. “She is gone to God,” Holdsworth said at last. “My little man, you will meet her again.” “To God!” cried the child. “That’s where papa is!” He looked up with startled eyes at the sky, and then sobbed passionately, “Has she left me alone? has she left me alone?” “No, she has left you to me. Be a good boy now, and don’t cry, and I will take care of you, and love you dearly.”