TRANSGRESSING THE LAWS.

85

but somehow they all seem to have the "Oh, my" rather bad.

I knew what was the matter with them. They were seasick. And I was glad of it. We all like to see people seasick when we are not, ourselves. Playing whist by the cabin lamps when it is storming outside, is pleasant; walking the quarter-deck in the moonlight, is pleasant; smoking in the breezy foretop is pleasant, when one is not afraid to go up there; but these are all feeble and commonplace compared with the joy of seeing people suffering the miseries of seasickness.

I picked up a good deal of information during the afternoon. At one time I was climbing up the quarter-deck when the vessel's stern was in the sky; I was smoking a cigar and feeling passably comfortable. Somebody ejaculated :

"Come, now, that won't answer. Read the sign up thereNO SMOKING ABAFT THE WHEEL!"

It was Capt. Duncan, chief of the expedition. I went forward, of course. I saw a long spy-glass lying on a desk in one of the upper-deck state-rooms back of the pilot-house, and reached after it-there was a ship in the distance:

"Ah, ah-hands off! Come out of that!"

I came out of that. I said to a deck-sweep-but in a low voice:

"Who is that overgrown pirate with the whiskers and the discordant voice?"

"It's Capt. Bursley-executive officer-sailing-master."

I loitered about awhile, and then, for want of something better to do, fell to carving a railing with my knife. Somebody said, in an insinuating, admonitory voice:

"Now say my friend-don't you know any better than to be whittling the ship all to pieces that way? You ought to know better than that."

I went back and found the deck-sweep:

"Who is that smooth-faced animated outrage yonder in the fine clothes?”

"That's Capt. L****, the owner of the ship-he's one of

the main bosses."

86

TRANSGRESSING THE LAWS.

In the course of time I brought up on the starboard sid the pilot-house, and found a sextant lying on a bench. N I said, they "take the sun" through this thing; I sh think I might see that vessel through it. I had hardly g to my eye when some one touched me on the shoulder said, deprecatingly:

"I'll have to get you to give that to me, Sir. If there's

thing you'd like to know about taking the sun, I'd as soo tell you as not-but I don't like to trust any body wit that instrument. If you want any figuring done Ay aye, Sir!"

He was gone, to answer a call from the other side. sought the deck-sweep:

"Who is that spider-legged gorilla yonder with the sancti monious countenance?"

"It's Capt. Jones, Sir-the chief mate."

TRANSGRESSING

THE LAWS.

37

"Well. This goes clear away ahead of any thing I ever heard of before. Do you-now I ask you as a man and a brother-do you think I could venture to throw a rock here in any given direction without hitting a captain of this ship?" "Well, Sir, I don't know-I think likely you'd fetch the captain of the watch, may be, because he's a-standing right yonder in the way."

I went below-meditating, and a little down-hearted. I thought, if five cooks can spoil a broth, what may not five captains do with a pleasure excursion.

WE

CHAPTER IV.

E plowed along bravely for a week or more, and wit out any conflict of jurisdiction among the captain worth mentioning. The passengers soon learned to accomm date themselves to their new circumstances, and life in th ship became nearly as systematically monotonous as th routine of a barrack. I do not mean that it was dull, for i was not entirely so by any means-but there was a good deal of sameness about it. As is always the fashion at sea, the passengers shortly began to pick up sailor terms-a sign tha they were beginning to feel at home. Half-past six was no longer half-past six to these pilgrims from New England, the South, and the Mississippi Valley, it was "seven bells;" eight twelve and four o'clock were "eight bells;" the captain did not take the longitude at nine o'clock, but at "two bells. They spoke glibly of the "after cabin," the "for'rard cabin, port and starboard " and the "fo'castle."

46

At seven bells the first gong rang; at eight there was breakfast, for such as were not too seasick to eat it. After that all the well people walked arm-in-arm up and down the long promenade deck, enjoying the fine summer mornings, and the seasick ones crawled out and propped themselves up in the lee of the paddle-boxes and ate their dismal tea and toast, and looked wretched. From eleven o'clock until luncheon, and from luncheon until dinner at six in the evening, the employments and amusements, were various. Some reading was done; and much smoking and sewing, though not by the same parties; there were the monsters of the deep to be looked after

PILGRIM LIFE AT

SEA.

39

and wondered at; strange ships had to be scrutinized through opera-glasses, and sage decisions arrived at concerning them; and more than that, every body took a personal interest in seeing that the flag was run up and politely dipped three times in response to the salutes of those strangers; in the smokingroom there were always parties of gentlemen playing euchre, draughts and dominoes, especially dominoes, that delightfully harmless game; and down on the main deck, "for'rard "— for'rard of the chicken-coops and the cattle—we had what was called "horse-billiards." Horse-billiards is a fine game. It affords good, active exercise, hilarity, and consuming excitement. It is a mixture of "hop-scotch" and shuffle-board played with a crutch. A large hop-scotch diagram is marked out on the deck with chalk, and each compartment numbered. You stand off three or four steps, with some broad wooden disks before you on the deck, and these you send forward with a vigorous thrust of a long crutch. If a disk stops on a chalk line, it does not count any thing. If it stops in division No. 7, it counts 7; in 5, it counts 5, and so on. The game is 100, and four can play at a time. That game would be very simple, played on a stationary floor, but with us, to play it well required science. We had to allow for the reeling of the ship to the right or the left. Very often one made calculations for a heel to the right and the ship did not go that way. The consequence was that that disk missed the whole hop-scotch plan a yard or two, and then there was humiliation on one side and laughter on the other.

When it rained, the passengers had to stay in the house, of course or at least the cabins-and amuse themselves with games, reading, looking out of the windows at the very familiar billows, and talking gossip.

By 7 o'clock in the evening, dinner was about over; an hour's promenade on the upper deck followed; then the gong sounded and a large majority of the party repaired to the after cabin (upper) a handsome saloon fifty or sixty feet long, for prayers. The unregenerated called this saloon the "Synagogue." The devotions consisted only of two hymns from the "Plymouth Collection," and a short prayer, and seldom