PBEPAEINQ FOR ACTION. 9 



hard work, I looked up to the stately stars, thinking (■ 

 things not to be talked about without being suspected of 

 cant. So swiftly passed the time that when four bells 

 struck (two o'clock) I could hardly believe my ears. 



I was relieved by one of the Portuguese, and went 

 forward to witness a curious scene. Seven stalwart men 

 were being compelled to march up and down on that 

 tumbling deck, men who had never before trodden any- 

 thing less solid than the earth. 



The third mate, a waspish, spiteful little Yankee with 

 a face like an angry cat, strolled about among them, a 

 strand of rope-yarns in his hand, which he wielded con- 

 stantly, regardless where he struck a man. They fell 

 about, sometimes four or five at once, and his blows flew 

 thick and fast, yet he never seemed to weary of his ill- 

 doing. It made me quite sick, and I longed to be aft at 

 the wheel again. Catching sight of me standing irreso- 

 lute as to what I had better do, he ordered me on the 

 " look-out," a tiny platform between the " knight heads," 

 just where the bowsprit joins the ship. Gladly I obeyed 

 him, and perched up there looking over the wide sea, 

 the time passed quickly away until eight bells (four 

 o'clock) terminated my watch. I must pass rapidly over 

 the condition of things in the fo'lk'sle, where all the 

 greenies that were allowed below, were groaning in 

 misery from the stifling atmosphere which made their 

 sickness so much worse, while even that dreadful place 

 was preferable to what awaited them on deck. There 

 was a rainbow-coloured halo round the flame of the lamp, 

 showing how very bad the air was ; but in spite of that I 

 turned in and slept soundly till seven bells (7.20 a.m.) 

 roused us to bieakfast. 



American ships generally have an excellent name for 



