20 NIMBOD OF TEE SEA; OR, 



Eight days afterward, I was standing, a cold, wet crea- 

 ture in red flannel and duck, looking back at a low bank 

 of cloud-like land, as Montauk Point was fast sinking from 

 sight. 



" So Juan stood, bewildered, on the deck : 



The wind sung, cordage strained, and sailors swore. 

 And the ship creaked, the town became a speck, 

 From which away so fair and fast they flew." 



It seemed a wide Rubicon I was crossing. Heart and 

 landscape sunk together. I was now in fitter mood to bid 

 a proper good-bye to those I had so lightly left, so lightly 

 thought of — bah !■ what a miserable substitute is the rough 

 flannel cufE for a linen handkerchief : it leaves the eyes so 

 red that the jolly brutes about me, in sympathetic tone, in- 

 quire if my "head is running on shilling calico already." 

 The first night at sea is ever memorable, especially when a 

 stiff north-west gale whistles a double-quick over the. star- 

 board quarter. Such was our welcome; but running free, 

 we made, good progress on a course. By some mysterious 



election I found myself in the starboard watch, Mr. S , 



the second mate, heading it. I very soon found a prejudice 

 against my superior, and a serious doubt arose as to the 

 right of his claim to be a gentleman. The matter came out 

 in this wise : in the course of his duty, I suppose, it became 

 necessary to order a reef in the foretop-sail. The yard was 

 lowered away ; the reef-tackles hauled out, with much un- 

 necessary " Yo, heave oh'ing," and the old salts flocked up 

 the weather shrouds. I was deeply interested in their move- 

 ments, never suspecting that a green hand would be required 

 to go aloft the first night out, and in such rough weather ; so 

 I studied the endless tangle of braces, halyards, reef-tackles, 

 clew-garnets, falls, and purchases by which I was surround- 

 ed. I wondered at the strange music of the storm-harp, the 

 infernal confusion of creaking yards, the flapping of the sails 



