I think we shall now have settled
weather, and that our chance of a safe arrival, more particularly in some
southern American port, is almost certain, though our chance for a speedy
arrival be not quite as good I hope before twenty-four hours are passed,
to see our decks white with sand.
"Is that a phenomenon seen here?" asked the father.
"Often, Mr. Effingham, when ships are close in with Africa, and are fairly
in the steady winds. To say the truth, the country abreast of us, some
twenty or thirty miles distant, is not the most inviting; and though it
may not be easy to say where the garden of Eden is, it is no hazardous to
say it is not there."
"If we are so very near the coast, why do we not see it?"
"Perhaps we might from aloft, if we had any aloft just now. We are to the
southward of the mountains, however, and off a part of the country where
the Great Desert makes from the coast. And now, gentlemen, I perceive Mr.
Monday finds all this sand arid, and I ask permission to give you, one and
all, 'Sweethearts and wives.'"
Most of the company drank the usual toast with spirit, though both the
Effinghams scarce wetted their lips. Eve stole a timid glance at her
father, and her own eyes were filled with tears as she withdrew them; for
she knew that every allusion of this nature revived in him mournful
recollections.
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