hands. How I accomplished this I do not know, but I am quite sure that I did not give the true, hoarse boatswain call of "A-a-ll ha-a-a-nds! up anchor, a-ho-oy!" In a short time every one was in motion, the sails were loosed, the yards braced, and we began to heave up the anchor, which 5 was our last hold upon Yankee land. I could take but small part in these preparations. My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault. Unintelligible orders were so rapidly given, and so immediately executed; there was such a hurrying about, and such an intermingling of 10 strange cries and stranger actions, that I was completely bewildered. There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor's life. At length those peculiar, long-drawn sounds which denote that the crew are heaving at the windlass began, 15 and in a few minutes we were under way. The noise of the water thrown from the bows was heard, the vessel leaned over from the damp night breeze, and rolled with the heavy ground swell, and we had actually begun our long, long journey. This was literally bidding good night 20 to my native land. "With all my imperfections on my head ": see "Hamlet," Act I, Scene V, line 79. reeving: slipping a rope through or around. - studding sail: a light extra sail set outside a square sail.fore and aft: a nautical phrase meaning lengthwise of a vessel. - in the roads: a place at some distance from the shore where vessels may ride at anchor. THE VOICE OF THE SEA THOMAS NELSON PAGE THOMAS NELSON PAGE (1853 ) is an American author and poet. His studies of the South have much literary merit. NOTE. This extract from a recent poem is full of power and significance and demands careful expression as well as study. Note the frequent 5 ellipsis of words which would be necessary in prose. Thus spake to Man the thousand-throated Sea : Words which the stealing winds caught from its lips: Thou thinkest thee and thine, God's topmost crown. But hearken unto me and humbly learn 10 How infinite thine insignificance. Thou boastest of thine age- - thy works- thyself: 15 The Earth, thy mother, from whose breast thou draw'st Thy cradle and thy tomb, was made, I was: 5 10 10 15 5 HARK TO THE SHOUTING WIND HENRY TIMROD HENRY TIMROD (1829-1867) was an American poet. He was a native of South Carolina and is perhaps the finest interpreter of the heroism and devotion of the South. Hark to the shouting Wind! Hark to the flying Rain! And I care not though I never see There are thoughts in my breast to-day And oh, to be with that ship That I watch through the blinding brine! Shout on, thou pitiless Wind, To the frightened and flying Rain! A calm blue sky again. THE SETTLERS OF NEW ENGLAND JOHN FISKE JOHN FISKE (1842–1901) was an American historian, famous not only for his learning but also for the courage and vigor of his thought. In these times, when great steamers sail every day from European ports, bringing immigrants to a country not less advanced in material civilization than the country which they leave, the daily arrival of a thousand new citizens has come to be a commonplace event. 5 But in the seventeenth century the transfer of more than twenty thousand well-to-do people within twenty years from their comfortable homes in England to the 10 American wilderness was by no means a commonplace event. It reminds one of the migrations of ancient peoples, and in the quaint thought of our forefathers it was aptly likened to the exodus of Israel from the Egyptian house of bondage. 15 In this migration a principle of selection was at work which insured an extraordinary uniformity of character and of purpose among the settlers. To this uniformity of purpose, combined with complete homogeneity of race, is due the preponderance early acquired by New England 20 in the history of the American people. In view of this, it is worth while to inquire what were the real aims of the settlers of New England. What was |