The Captain of the Waggon 95 



of able-bodied seamen in the shape of labourers, to help 

 to load up. When on the more distant voyages to unknown 

 shores, she takes a supercargo — the farmer's son — to check 

 the bills of lading ; for on these strange coasts who knows 

 what treachery there may be brewing ? There are arms 

 aboard, in the form of forks or prongs ; and commonly one 

 or more passengers go out in her — women with vast bundles 

 and children — not to mention the merchandise of sugars 

 and of teas from Cathay, which are shipped for delivery 

 at half the cottages and farmsteads en route homewards. 

 Wherefore, you see, the captain had needs be a sober and 

 godly man, having all these and manifold other responsi- 

 bilities upon his mind. 



Besides which he has to make a report upon the state 

 of the crops on every farm he passes, and what everybody 

 is doing, and if they have begun reaping; also to hail 

 every vessel he passes outward or homeward bound, and 

 enter her answers in his log, and to keep his weather-eye 

 open and a sharp watch to windward, lest storms should 

 arise and awake the deep, and if the gale increases to 

 batten down his hatches and make all snug with the tar- 

 paulin. He must bear in mind the longitude of those 

 ports where there are docks, lest his team should cast a 

 shoe or any of the running rigging want splicing, or the 

 hull spring a leak — for the blacksmith's forges are otten 

 leagues apart, and he may lose his certificate if he strands 

 his ship or founders on the open ocean of the downs. 

 Sometimes, if the currents run unexpectedly strong, and 

 he is deeply laden, he has to borrow or hire a tug from 

 the nearest farm, getting an extra horse to pull up the 

 hill. 



When he reaches harbour, and has leave ashore, a 

 jollier seaman never cracked a whip. Perhaps the hap- 



