The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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English ship ... bound round the Horn, we have not spied a sail, nor a
land bird, nor a shred of sea-weed. In impudent isolation, the toy
schooner has plowed her path of snow across the empty deep, far from all
track of commerce, far from any hand of help; now to the sound of
slatting sails and stamping sheet blocks, staggering in the turmoil of
that business falsely called a calm, now, in the assault of squalls
burying her lee-rail in the sea.... Flying fish, a skimming silver rain
on the blue sea; a turtle fast asleep in the early morning sunshine;
the Southern Cross hung thwart the forerigging like the frame of a
wrecked kite--the pole star and the familiar plough dropping ever lower
in the wake; these build up thus far the history of our voyage. It is
singular to come so far and see so infinitely little."

The squalls that came very quickly, frequently broke the monotony of the
trip. One moment the _Casco_ would be sailing along easily and the "next
moment, the inhabitants of the cabin were piled one upon another, the
sea was pouring into the cockpit and spouting in fountains through