Page 28 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

wafted toward the gallant ship with its precious freight of human lives.
Now the mist thickens. A curtain like the night is spread over the
deep ^nd we are sailing into mystery. Hark 1 The fog-horn gives its
warning sound, which 11 oats away over the sea, yet no echo comes
back. Again and again, boom ! boom[ goeij. the fog-horn, and tlie
low, long, hollow sound dies away in silence. And now the breath
of the ocean stirs. See ! The thick veil around is rent, the dense fog
is torn to shreds, bright gleams of light flash across the waters, the
clouds of mist roll upward, the white crests of the waves sparkle in the
sunlight The ship, no longer timid, take.? a fresh start. Her great
engines throb;
“ She seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel: ”

she trembles in every fibre' swiftly she leaves the long' white wake
behind her; she is eager for the shore.
Now, the faint yet certain signs of a storm are in the sky, The sun
is wrapped in a haze and the great Atlantic rolls in thickening gloom,
Long, compact clouds skirt tfic horizon, and hour by hour they climb
tlie sky higher and grow darker. The breeze is livelier now. Look !
The white-caps fling up their gleaming crests, the gallant ship grows
more uneasy, storm-blasts sweep through the whistling rigging, and
the passengers crawl below deck.
Night comes on and the gale increases. The elements have broken
their chains and their starUim> furv is unrestrained. Great waves
■b1 T-
in quick succession beat against the ship and now and then sweep
in swift torrents over her deck, She rears and plunges like a wild
horse without a rider. The cries of women and childr en add to the
terrible scene, Rang! Thump! Another huge wave strikes the ship,
and she staggers like a drunken man. Now she rises and topples
on the crest of the awful billows, and now dives down into the hollow
gulf as if about to be swalloved up by the jaws of the devouring deep !
Night j dark ;md terrible, closes around us again. Fast we drive
before the fury of the gale, Through tlie roar of the mad hurricane
and the noise of the angry waters wc hear the loud, hoarse voices