78 WHALING AND FISHING. 



long absence gives a zest to the enjoyment of 

 home pleasures, which nothing else could impart 

 to them." 



Here were two opinions one that of hopeful 

 youth, looking forward to a bright future the 

 other that of mature age, already grasping th< 

 future still anticipated by the first. 



" Put up your helm a little, Charley, Ihe sails 

 are shaking in the wind," said the captain, put- 

 ting an end to the conversation, and rousing me 

 from a very unsailorlike revery on the vanity of 

 all sublunary affairs. 



I must own I sided with the captain. His pic- 

 ture was a sober, sad reality. It was the review 

 of a life spent to but little purpose of energies 

 wasted, purposes defeated, and bright hopes with- 

 ered. His little yarn gave me the first twinge of 

 home-sickness I had felt for many a year. 1 

 thought of the loved ones at home, of the seven 

 long years in which I had not heard from them, 

 and of the apparently small hope of my ever re- 

 turning thither, to sit down in peace and quietness. 



In short, I was getting " blue," blue as the azure 

 sky overhead, but not near so cheerful, when the 

 ever-joyful cry of " Land, ho ! " from the mast- 

 head, happily brought my wandering thoughts 

 back to the present, and dispelled the gloomy fan 

 cies which were beginning to crowd my brain. 



To think is not part of the regular business of a 

 sailor ; and to be afflicted with thoughts beyond 

 the mere present, must ever be to him a source of 



