"whales has feelin's." 179 



fight; warm was the hand-grip of mess-mates as 

 we climbed aboard ; broad and bland the smile on 

 every sun-browned face ! We were all alive. We 

 were all unhurt. We had killed the whale. 



The inevitable well-worn joke now went the 

 rounds. " Better have paid your wash-woman ! " 



" You needn't talk, Jack ; you're as wet as a 

 draownded shark." 



" Don't care if I be. Ain't no gearin' 'tween 

 wash-tubs an' whale-boats. Who said there was ? " 



" You did, you slushy hypocritter, you. Ef 

 'taint so, then what'd you say I cheated my 

 wash-woman for, jest on accaount o' me bein' in a 

 stoven boat, you loony beach-comber ? " 



"Clew down your jawin'-tackle, sonnywax! 

 Cheerily, oh ! " 



This sort of mock-malice stood for the best of 

 good-will. The more those men berated each 

 other the better they felt all around. 



When they took the falls to the windlass and 

 manned the bars it was a joy to hear them sing. 

 Sailor-songs are not metrically faultless, any more 

 than Whitman's poems ; but they have the Jack 

 Tar spirit of the forecastle breathing all through 

 them, and hear and there a touch of easy humor. 

 This particular song ran, as I remember it, some- 

 thing after this fashion : — 



