"There, sir!" exclaimed Needham, giving a hearty blow with his hammer, and relieving his pent-up feelings by a loud outletting of his breath between a groan and a sigh; "I hope that will do." Without stopping a moment, he and Wasser, with White, the other seaman, seized the break, and began labouring away with all their might. To the great joy of all hands a clear full stream came gushing upon deck, and ran out through the scuppers. The blacks, and all not immediately engaged in mending the pump, had been baling away all the time with buckets. They pumped and pumped away, and after half an hour's toil they found on sounding that they had much lessened the water in the hold. "Huzza!" shouted Needham; "we'll do now, never fear, lads!" Nearly three hours, however, passed before the vessel was completely cleared of water. It was Adair's watch. "I shall sleep more soundly than I have done for many a day," said Murray, as he prepared to turn into his horrible little berth. "We have been so mercifully preserved that I trust the same Almighty hand will protect us to the end of our voyage. Paddy, my dear fellow, do you ever pray? I never see you on your knees." "Pray!" answered Adair, with some hesitation, "of course I do; that is to say, sometimes--when I recollect it. I dare say I ought more than I do." Murray took his shipmate's arm as they stood together near the taffrail of their little craft, looking out over that heaving ocean whose smooth, glass-like undulations reflected ever and anon the bright stars which glittered in the dark sky above their heads. "Tell me who but One whose hand is powerful to save could have preserved us from the numberless dangers into which our duty, but how often our thoughtlessness, has led us. Were it not by His mercy, we should even now be sinking beneath those glassy but treacherous swells on which our vessel floats securely; then should we not, my dear Adair, pray to Him, not only now and then, when we may think of it, but at morning and evening, when we rise and when we sleep, and oftentimes during the course of the day? Remember what the Bible says, it tells us to pray always." "You are right, Murray, you are always right," answered Adair, with a sigh. "I know, too, that you practise what you preach, or I would not listen to you. I'll try to follow your advice. I'll pray when I turn in by and by. I'll thank God that we have not gone to the bottom, and I'll pray that we may be saved as we have been all along in the dangers we may have to encounter." "Why not pray at once?" exclaimed Murray. "All on board here have been equally preserved. The same God made us all, the same God will hear our prayers." "Yes, yes, all right--I'll do what you like," said Adair.