Page images
PDF
EPUB

he makes a better feast, he has a healthier and far more grateful repast, than the man who has every luxury at his command; because he eats it with the appetite of health; he knows not the loathings of a pampered stomach. When, cold and drenched with rain, he lays down in his hammock, although he knows that in four hours he must again meet the storm, he enjoys a far sounder repose than he who lolls till the day is far advanced, on the bed of ease and idleness; because fatigue has prepared the body for the great restorer; indolence has not feverished and unnerved. So that were we to examine rightly, and come to just conclusions, we might, perhaps, find, that the sailor with all his privations, with seemingly scarcely a comfort at all, has really more enjoyment than those who seem to have every comfort, than those who may be contemning his situation. We know not what any thing is till we have actually reached it; and those ills, which, only contemplating at a distance, we think we could never exist under, if we come to be obliged to suffer them, change wonderfully in

their aspect; and we not only find out that they are bearable, but that there is even some comfort with them! When fair weather comes, the sailor gets his ease, and never giving himself a thought about the blasts he may, before long, have to encounter, he makes himself happy.

There is also, when it blows pretty briskly, and the jumble of the sea is pretty considerable, something to annoy even the passenger. There is then, of course, a good deal of tumbling and tossing about; and frequently at the breakfast or dinner table some things occur, calculated, certainly, to vex, but perhaps, on the whole, to amuse more. In the first place, on the rough days, there is generally a shorter allowance than usual. Fewer dishes are served up, for a great many cannot well be taken care of. This, however, would not be much to complain of; but often the dish upon which we are placing almost our whole dependance, though we may think it pretty safely placed, follows, in an unlucky moment, a roll of the ship, ere any one has had time to look into it; and the chance is, that some

unfortunate fellow to leeward, gets more of it than he is wanting. Or, if time has been allowed to help the contents about, as it is rather a ticklish thing, at such a time to eat and keep the seat too; sometimes, before the mess has been far proceeded in, some one or other to windward, more eager on his plate than his seat, loses his hold, and down he goes carrying others along with him; and those who, thinking they have got a safe birth to leeward, are looking out for no mishap, but solely engaged with what is in their hands, are all at once surprised, and very likely injured either in body or clothes, by half a dozen people, and half a dozen chairs, and half a dozen plates of soup, going down upon them. And as a man in jeopardy will catch at a straw, when those who have lost their hold find themselves moving in a downward direction, although there is nothing in the way to seize upon, but a knife, or a fork, or a tea-pot, or a tumbler, or a wine decanter, even these they will grasp at in their eagerness to save themselves, and in their attempts to prevent, sometimes aggravate, the mis

fortune; some one, perhaps, gets a touch he would rather dispense with. And sometimes, to put a good finish to the whole, while the fallen are busy recovering themselves, and those who are still fast are engaged either pitying, or making light, of, their distress, another big and unexpected roll comes, which either sends them down on their fallen brethren, or walks the remainder of the eatables off the table, and the only comfort left is, to look forward with hope to the next meal.

And

"Sweet are the uses of adversity."

"He cannot be a perfect man

That is not tried and tutored in the world."

"But I would you did but hear the piteous cry of the poor souls; sometimes to see them, and then not to see them; and now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon swallowed with yeast and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a hogshead. I would you did but see how, when the soup and the big curving knife lighted upon him, he cried to me for help, and said his

name was Antigonus, a nobleman; and how, as the poor souls roared, the sea mocked them."

Another very gratifying scene at sea is, when, on the Sabbath, the men are all mustered, clean and in their best apparel, to join in common worship. There is something exceedingly impressive in hearing the word of God preached and read in such a place. There is something that lifts the feelings high, and makes sure of carrying them away from all common affairs, that lights up the flame of devotion, and infuses the spirit of seriousness and kindliness into the heart, even into the heart that at other times may sadly want religious feeling. The clear blue heavens above, the far-spread ocean on every side, the gentle propitious gale urging the vessel on her course, the attentive crew sitting round, the man of God in the midst, preaching zealously the instructive lesson, or offering up the solemn prayer, give an interest and a solemnity to the scene which is truly impressive. It seems, in such a place, as if we were removed in some

E

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »