46 NIMHOD OF TSE SEA; OR, 



great favorite with officers and men. Never in the way, his 

 hand and voice were always present when they were needed. 

 He had auburn hair, and blue eyes, set in a broad, sanguine 

 face (hence unaccountably, it was said, the ship-name of Po- 

 sey), wearing an expression of sadness. Posey was a schol- 

 arly man ; his hands were delicate, and he had a stoop which 

 neatly fitted him to the low ceiling of our forecastle. He 

 was not at all the beauty of the crew, and he had not come 

 to sea to escape the "fool-catcher." He pulled the bow-oar 



in Mr. F 's larboard quarter-boat, and so was in direct 



line of promotion. His heart was in his work, and he used 

 all his energy to win his way to the harpooner's- place. No 

 boat was lowered to practice on black-fish in which he was 

 not a volunteer, and he was always on hand to aid in coiling 

 line in the boat-tubs and in mounting and grinding harpoons 

 and lances. In fact he was a ready hand for the hundred 

 little details which go to complete the gear of a whale-boat. 

 In a night-watch he confided to his companions the inspira^ 

 tion which sustained him, cheery and unwearied, in the hard, 

 uncongenial life in which he was immersed. I was young 

 and heart-whole, with my love in the wild, wandering life 

 before me, and was amused, rather than interested, in the 

 story which told of a young scholar from Vermont, who 

 found home and occupation as master of a school in Nan- 

 tucket. 



The old, old stoiy it was — old as the Garden of Eden. A 

 man met the woman he loved, and found, too late, that he 

 could only win the daughter of a long line of the nobles of 

 the island — the whaling-captains — ^by winning his knight- 

 hood at the head of the whale-boat. A true daughter of the 

 land, the girl desired the security of a home founded on the 

 traditional harvest-field of her ancestors. How could it be 

 helped ? She had been taught to refuse to dance with one 

 who had not been fast to a whale, and never to accept a 



