ry morning for eighty-nine days the gaudy
music box faithfully played the tune over and over again.

* * * * *

The ship drifted slowly through the Sargasso Sea--that dead, sweltering
area of smooth waters and endless leagues of drifting seaweed.... Or we
lifted and sank on great, smooth swells ... the last disturbance of a
storm far off where there were honest winds that blew.

* * * * *

The prickly heat assailed us ... hundreds of little red, biting pimples
on our bodies ... the cook's fresh-baked bread grew fuzz in twenty-four
hours after baking ... the forecastle and cabin jangled and snarled
irritably, like tortured animals....

* * * * *

It was with a shout, one day, that we welcomed a good wind, and shot
clear of this dead sea of vegetable matter.

* * * * *

As we crossed the equator Father Neptune came on board ... a curious
sea-ceremony that must hark back to the Greeks and Romans....

The bow-legged sailmaker played Neptune.

He combed out a beard of rope, wrapped a sheet around his shoulders,
procured a trident of wood....

"Come," shouted one of the sailors to me, running up like a happy boy,
"come, see Neptune climbing on board."

The sail-maker pretended to mount up out of the sea, climbing over the
forecastle head--just as if he had left his car of enormous,
pearl-tinted sea-shell, with the spouting dolphins still hitched to it,
waiting for him, while he paid his respects to our captain.

Captain Schantze, First Mate Miller, Second Mate Stange, stood waiting
the ceremonial on the officers' bridge, an amused smile playing over
their faces.

A big, boy-faced sailor named Klaus, and the ship's blacksmith, a
grey-eyed, sandy-haired fellow named Klumpf, followed the sailmaker
close behind, as he swept along in his regalia, solemnly and
majestically. And Klaus beat a triangle. And Klumpf played an accordion.

"Sailmaker" (the only name he was called by on the ship) made a
grandiose speech to the Captain.

Schantze replied in the same vein, beginning,

"Euer Majestaet--"

* * * * *

The sailors marched forward again, to their music, like pleased
children. For custom was that they should have plum duff this day, and
plenty of hot grog....

Before I was aware, I was caught up by several arms.

For I had never before crossed the line