THAT GREAT LEVIATHAN. 35 



descend to the restless little craft that will soon 

 take them back to their homes. The lingering 

 grasp of hands, the ill-concealed tremor of fare- 

 wells, and the moistened, glistening eye, tell of 

 the friendship of men who have together battled 

 with the giant seas and fierce winds of the Horn, 

 who have stood shoulder to shoulder when short- 

 ening the wings of their hurrying ship in the 

 short-lived gales of the Equator, and who have 

 for long years shared alike in common hardships, 

 joys and sorrows. 



The little fairy shoots ahead, and, hying up into 

 the wind, is soon on our weather beam, homeward 

 bound. Three rousing cheers from her deck, and 

 three from the outward bound, and we are alone 

 on the sea, with nothing binding us to the shore 

 but memories of the past and hopes for the future ! 



And now, indeed, though with everything yet 

 to learn, I was fairly made a sailor of. There 

 was no possible back-wending, however 1 might 

 thereafterward mope and whimper. Accordingly 

 I turned my heart manfully toward my strange, 

 new life and faced it with earnest cheer. 



The first day out, the ship's crew is divided into 

 two watches, larboard and starboard, the former 

 always headed by the first officer and the latter by 

 the second. The men are mustered aft and the 



