This Announcement Produced A Strong Sensation - The Sick Rallied - And
The Rest Speculated As To What Was Next To Befall Us; While The
Doctor, Without Alluding To Guy, Congratulated Me Upon The Prospect
Of Soon Beholding A Place So Famous As The Island In Question.
The night after the holding of the council, I happened to go on deck
in the middle watch, and found the yards braced sharp up on the
larboard tack, with the South East Trades strong on our bow.
The
captain was no better; and we were off for Tahiti.
CHAPTER XIV.
ROPE YARN
WHILE gliding along on our way, I cannot well omit some account of a
poor devil we had among us, who went by the name of Rope Yarn, or
Ropey.
He was a nondescript who had joined the ship as a landsman. Being so
excessively timid and awkward, it was thought useless to try and make
a sailor of him; so he was translated into the cabin as steward; the
man previously filling that post, a good seaman, going among the crew
and taking his place. But poor Ropey proved quite as clumsy among the
crockery as in the rigging; and one day when the ship was pitching,
having stumbled into the cabin with a wooden tureen of soup, he
scalded the officers so that they didn't get over it in a week. Upon
which, he was dismissed, and returned to the forecastle.
Now, nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy,
good-for-nothing land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassion
for him.
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