28 THE WORLD OF ICE.

of whale-ships being lost, and, somehow or other, we
never hear of the crews being saved, as one reads of
when ships are wrecked in the usual way on the sea-
shore.”

Isobel squeezed her mother’s hand, and looked up
in her face with an expression that said plainly,
“Don’t ery so, mamma; I’m swe he will come back,”
but she could not find words to express herself, so she
glanced towards the mastiff for help.

Buzzby felt that it devolved upon him to afford
consolation under the circumstances; but Mrs. Bricht’s
mind was of that peculiar stamp which repels advances
in the way of consolation unconsciously, and Buzzby
was puzzled. He screwed up first the right eye and
then the left, and smote his thigh repeatedly; and
assuredly, if contorting his visage could have comforted
Mrs. Bright, she would have returned home a happy
woman, for he made faces at her violently for full
five minutes. But it did her no good, perhaps because
she didn’t see him, her eyes being suffused with tears.

“Ah! yes,” resumed Mrs. Bright, with another
burst, “I know they will never come back, and your
silence shows that you think so too. And to think of
their taking two years’ provisions with them in case
of accidents !—doesn’t that prove that there are going
to be accidents? And didn’t I hear one of the sailors
say that she was a crack ship, A number one? I
don’t know what he meant by A number one, but
if she’s a cracked ship I know she will never come
back ; and although I told my dear brother of it, and