I asked him to steer, but he said the boat was my own, and that I was likely to get more out of her than a stranger.

The sail filled, and the boat heeled to the steady breeze; and it was good to hear the ripples wake at the bows, and feel the life come back to her, as it were, after the idle drifting of the last hour.

But there was no doubt that the wind was failing us little by little.
About sunrise it breezed up again, and cheered us mightily.

That lasted for half an hour, and then the sail flapped against the mast, and the calm we feared fell.

The long swell sank little by little until we floated on a dead smooth sea, under brightest sunshine, with the seabirds calling round us.