He forgot even the boat.

The coveted prize of his ambition an hour before, had small importance to Abel now.

His one thought was for this distressed little one that God had so unexpectedly sent down to him upon the bosom of the sea.
The child ceased crying, and with big blue tear-wet eyes looked with wonder upon his dusky faced deliverer.
"_Oksunae_" (be strong), said Abel with a reassuring smile, as he stooped and took the little one's hand into his big rough palm.
The child did not understand the word of greeting, but he did understand, with the intuition and instinct of little children and dumb creatures, that Abel was his friend.
Beneath the deck, forward, were blankets, in which the boy had doubtless been sleeping when Abel first looked into the boat and discovered the dead man.

Beneath the deck Abel also found among other things, a jug partly filled with tepid water, a tin cup, and a bag containing a few broken fragments of sea biscuits.

He gave the child a sip of the water and selected for it one of the larger fragments of biscuit.