"
"No thanks to them for that," said Jack; "if they had not discovered a
new world we should have been in an old one."
"That does not follow," remarked Ernest; "the new world would have
existed even if it had not been discovered, and you might have found
your way there all the same."
"Not very likely," replied Jack, "unless one of the stars you intend
to discover had shown us the way; otherwise it would only have existed
in conjecture; and as nobody under such circumstances would have
dreamt of settling in it, they would not have been shipwrecked during
the voyage."
"Very true," remarked Fritz; "if we had not been here we should, very
probably, have been somewhere else, and perhaps in a much worse
plight. Let me ask if there is any one here who regrets his present
position?"
Willis was about to reply to this question, but Sophia observing that
there was something wrong with the handkerchief that he wore round his
neck, hastened towards him to put it to rights, and he was silent.
The hour had now arrived when the families separated for the night.
Mary was preparing as usual to recite the evening prayer, but before
doing so she whispered a few words in her mother's ear.
"Yes, my child;" and, turning to Frank, she added, "Since you are
determined to adopt the ministry as a profession, it is but right that
we should for the future entrust ourselves to your prayers.
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