406 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
cumstance electrified Tom, and opened his word loom to the 
following yarn. 
“ The lubber, that whale ! I would like to be in the bow 
of a staunch boat, with four stout oarsmen, and a bold fellow 
to steer upon him ; I would soon make him spout blood in¬ 
stead of water! 
‘ I was telling you the yarn of my becoming a sailor, when 
the old man coiled up my thoughts among the halyards. 
Now that whale brings them back again, and while he is 
taking his observation, and blowing his nose, I’ll finish my yarn. 
I was about nineteen when I blundered against the capstan 
of a whaler, and shipped at New Bedford for a three years’ 
cruise. We left port with as good an outfit of harpoons, lines, 
knives, trying-pans, stores, and ship’s crew as ever swam the 
brine. I remember we had a studdin-sail breeze a longer 
time on our passage out, than I ever saw before or since, ex¬ 
cept in the trades. We put out all sail in sight of the New 
Bedford Light, and never took in a rag until we had crossed 
the equator; and then we struck a dead calm, which conti¬ 
nued fifteen days. That was the worst siege at oakum and 
spun yarn that Tom ever saw. The sun seemed to pour 
down fire! It was so warm that the tar in the deck fried 
and bubbled; and the old long boat shrunk so much that you 
could stick your thumb through between the planks; and the 
decks were so hot that we were obliged to keep them con¬ 
stantly wet to enable us to stand on them. And as to breath¬ 
ing, we found that the hardest work of all. The great 
atmosphere seemed to have escaped, and left a perfect void ! 
The ocean was smooth; not a rough spot upon it as big as a 
cent, except when the cook threw his slush overboard! It 
lay and rolled like a bending sea of glass ! The vessel, with 
its sails hanging loose on the mast, rose and fell on it like a 
sheet upon the breast of the dying. The sky was awfully 
bare and deserted ! Not a shred of a cloud dotted it for fif¬ 
teen days ! I never felt lonesome till that time. I had rather 
lay to under storm sail a twelvemonth, than be compelled to 
