She had borne up well, not uttering a single complaint throughout all their trying ordeals.
As John sat there keeping guard over his charge, his mind went back across the wild waste of waters to the home he had left.

He seemed to feel the soft baby hands of little Rebecca on his face, or hear the prattling of his boy at play.

His wife's great, dark eyes looked at him from out the gloom, and he sighed as he thought how improbable it was that he would ever see them again.

Wrecked on an unknown shore, with dangers and difficulties to surmount, what hope had he of the future?
"Heaven watch over and guard my helpless ones at home, as I guard the charge entrusted to me," he prayed.
His fire was not so much to keep off the cold as wild animals.

The distant roar of the ocean beating on the shore broke the silence.