106 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



Chester became mate. As mate he was, as may- 

 be said, the ship's foreman, directing the work 

 of the men, and was in much more intimate con- 

 tact with the sailors than when he had been skip- 

 per. In his new capacity he had much greater 

 opportunity to make it unpleasant for me in a 

 thousand ways. But for some reason or other 

 he never made good that ferocious speech he had 

 delivered to me in the cabin. 



When other green hands bungled, he damned 

 them in round terms for their awkwardness. 

 When I blundered he showed me how to correct 

 my error. " Not that way, my boy," he would 

 say. Do it this way." When I took my trick 

 at the wheel he would often spin a yarn or crack 

 a joke with me. He loaned me books from time 

 to time. In Behring Sea, when he got out his 

 rifle and shot okchug seals as they lay basking 

 on cakes of ice, he almost invariably took me 

 with him in the boat to bring back the kill. In 

 short, he treated me more considerately than he 

 treated any other man in the forecastle and be- 

 fore the voyage was over we had become fast 

 friends. 



