36 PAUL SUFFERS FROM SEA-SICKNESS.

strength. This knit me to them both; every plank in the ship seemed like a friend, and every seaman was as a brother. I describe these feelings because, though I have sailed many a long voyage since that time, nothing like what I then felt has been experienced by me.

No sooner did the shores of my native land lessen in the distance, and the ship toss about on the billows, than I began to be qualmish; sickness soon followed; and though at the end of a month I got the better of it, yet while it lasted, it was a sad trouble to me.

I am not going to try to describe sea-sickness. They who know what it is, require no description; and those who do not, could hardly guess at it from the best account I could give it will be quite enough for me to say, that when at the worst I would not have crossed from the larboard to the starboard side of the deck for all the cargo the ship contained.

The worse I was, the more Frank laughed at me ; but never was any one more kind-hearted than he when any thing serious took place. He had his "sea-legs" on, as he called them, and acted the part of a capital nurse, while he tried to keep up my spirits.

The wind freshened one morning, and blew hard by the middle of the day. I was sitting down, rather sea-sick,

LURCH OF THE CUDDY-TABLE.

37

with medicine bottles before me, when the cuddy-table in a heavy lurch fetched away, and coming with full force against my breast, knocked me fairly over. The purser and Frank picked me up, and I do think the latter thought me nearly killed. He showed great affection for me; but I soon got the better of this unexpected accident.

I loved to see the fearlessness of the sailors. There are things enough at sea that are disagreeable; but those on shore, snugly tucked up in their warm blankets, who listen to the howling winds and pity sailors, hardly understand the matter. To a timid, fearful, and weakly person, every thing in the shape of trial is hard enough to be borne; but to those of hardy habits, with whom the storm is a familiar thing, it is different. There is excitement in the whistling winds and heaving ocean; and a seaman often mounts to the main-mast head, in a squall, with a heart as light, and as free from fear, as a fox-hunter engaged in the chase. There is nothing finical, precise, and lackadaysical on board ship; it is all hard, rough work and bold enterprise; and he whose mind is not made up to this, has no business on board. Sailors not only become attached to a sea-faring life, in spite of all its perils, but also often undervalue landsmen, and make a jest of their womanish fears. Even when the sea is calin, the mates

38

FRANK'S CHEERFULNESS.

pipe all hands, and for a time there is a bustling, noisy overhauling and splicing of old junk, ropes, sails, canvass, and spars, in preparation for whatever may happen; shifting of jib-booms, or lowering and reefing and hoisting of top-sails and top-gallant-sails. A sailor has little respite, and even his pastimes are almost as rough as the elements which he encounters.

Often and often, in the shrill pipings of the blustering winds, have I heard the voice of Frank Berkeley chaunting cheerily the words,

"If we've perils on sea, boys, we've pleasures on shore."

Frank was at home in a hard gale; his spirits seemed to rise with the rising wind; and, had he been brought up to the sea, would have made an excellent sailor, though his temper must have been a great deal brought down be

PAUL

LEARNING TO REEF.

39

fore he could have submitted to obey, at a word, the sometimes hard commands that are given to sailors.

As soon as my sea-sickness abated, I looked about me, full of interest and curiosity. Every thing around was new to me. The tall masts, tapering up to a wondrous height, and the wide, stretched sails, bending with the breeze that filled them, called forth my admiration. I wanted to know the use of every rope about the vessel, and felt mortified in being of so little service when every one else was actively and usefully employed. I wanted, all at once, to be able to run up the ratlines, to reef a sail, to take part in weighing anchor, and to steer the course of the ship. More questions were asked by me in one hour than I had ever asked in a month when on shore.

I soon loved the blustering breezes, and the heaving billows fringed with foam; while the different appearances of the sea, the strange inhabitants of the deep, and the birds that hovered around, afforded me constant amusement. At one moment the Pilot fish and the Rudder fish, the Sea nettle and the Sunfish floated by, and at another fleets of the little Nautilus or sea snail sailed by our side. There was no end to my admiration.

The first whale that I saw in the distance excited my curiosity prodigiously. It rose like a little island in the

40

PAUL SEES A WHALE.

ocean, and spouted out two streams of hot breath resembling water a considerable height in the air. I shall have something to say about whales in the course of my narrative. This one appeared to be playing in the water, raising his body above the surface, descending head foremost, and lashing the ocean into foam with his enormous tail.

and stuck on a large hook fastened to a strong rope. This was thrown into the sea, and I expected to see the monster dart forward with opened jaws to devour it ; but this was not the case.

He pushed

The shark was as wary as an old soldier. the bait about with his nose, swam on this side, and on that side, but never made a snap at it. Some of the sallors would have it that he knew what a piece of pork was as well as we did, and that there was little chance of having him as a messmate on board the Nancy.

After all, they were wrong in their opinion, for, just as the bait was being pulled up, the shark made a sort of half