40 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



salem ! how he could swear -when there was honest life-and- 

 death need of it ! Well, while the old man was a-cussin', 

 I heard cedar a-crackin', and when I looked around I was. 

 goin' up to the sky fast, with Captain Davis about half a 

 boat's-length ahead of me. We parted company up there, 

 for he kept on his course when I turned. I come down head 

 first as in course, and went down into dark water like a bower 

 anchor ; I was kind of wire-drawn, and felt long as the main- 

 mast. Bime-by I turned a sharp corner and glanced up, 

 most as fast as I went down, and was gettin' purty well into 

 daylight ag'in, when all at once it was dark ag'in. I looked 

 up, and there was the whale, like a comet with a tail of sea- 

 fire a-streamin' behind him, a-headin' right for me. Good 

 Lord, how I sculled out of his course ! He shot by me like 

 a rocket, and when I came up on a half-breach, I was just 

 dead-beat for breath. I spouted like a whale, and bio wed 

 out the surplush water, and got a good long breath. Oh, 

 how good the blessed air comes to a famished, chokin' man ! 



" Just then I heard something splash in the sea ; I turned 

 quick, and obsarved that the boat keg had just come down. 

 ' Stand from under !' said I, and, I looked up, and believe it or 

 not just as you please, but there was Captain Davis a-comin', 

 end over end, makin' the tallest kind of headway to his nat- 

 ural level. This whirligig made me kind of sea-sick, and 

 turned my stomick ag'in whalin'. I thought I'd carry out 

 my old plans, and git to Vermont jist as quick as I could; 

 so I got the sun well over my larboard shoulder, and struck 

 out north, two points east, for New London. But the mate's 

 boat overhauled me before I had swum far, and took me 

 back to the ship, where the captain gave me a stiff can of 

 grog, to qualify the salt I'd swallowed in my deep-sea sound- 

 ings. 



"Now, boys, I never could make out exactly whether 

 the captain went up very high, or I came up quicker than I 



