Sir Robert Bruce, belonging to the illustrious Scotch family of that name, was mate of a vessel. One day, when sailing near Newfoundland, and while busy with his calculations, he thought he saw the captain seated at his desk, but looked at him attentively, and noticed that it was a stranger, whose cold, fixed look surprised him. He went on deck; the captain noticed his surprise, and asked him what it meant. "Who is at your desk?" asked Bruce. "No one." "Yes, there is some one there. Is it a stranger; and how did he come there?" "You are either dreaming or joking." "Not at all. Come down and see for yourself." They go down to the cabin, but there is no one at the desk. The ship is thoroughly searched, but no stranger is found. "And yet the man I saw was writing on your slate; the writing must be there still," said he to the captain. [Illustration] They looked at the slate; it bore these words: "Steer to the northwest." "This must be your writing, or some one's else on board the ship." "No; I did not write it." Every one was told to write the same sentence, and no handwriting resembled that on the slate. "Very well," said the captain; "we will obey these instructions and steer the ship to the northwest; the wind is right, and will admit of our trying the experiment." [Illustration] Three hours later, the watch perceived an iceberg, and near it a vessel from Quebec, headed for Liverpool, dismantled and covered with people. They were brought off by boats of Bruce's vessel. As one of the men was climbing up the side of the rescuing vessel, Bruce started, and drew back in great agitation. He recognized the stranger whom he had seen tracing the words on the slate. He reported the strange incident to the captain. "Will you write 'Steer to the northwest' on this slate?" asked the captain, turning to the new-comer, and offering the side which bore no writing. The stranger complied with his request, and wrote the desired words. "Will you acknowledge that to be your ordinary handwriting?" asked the captain, struck with the similarity of the two sentences. "Of course; how can you doubt it? You saw me write it yourself." As a reply, the captain turned the slate over, and the stranger was amazed to see his own writing on both sides. "Did you dream of writing on that slate?" said the Quebec captain to the man who had just been writing. "No,--at least I have no remembrance of doing so." "What was that passenger doing at noon?" asks the rescuer of his brother captain. "The passenger was very tired, and had fallen into a sound sleep, as near as I remember, a little before twelve o'clock. An hour or more later he awoke, and said to me, 'Captain, we shall be saved this very day;' adding, 'I dreamed that I was on board a vessel coming to our relief.' He described the ship and its rigging, and we were very much surprised, when you headed for us, to recognize the exactness of the description."