he slater, so they help him; they can't see the fisher without running
the chance of being bruised and drenched, so they don't help him--at
present. They don't want good feeling; they want eyes, and we must act
as eyes for them. Women can only be useful on shore; you gentlemen must
do everything that is needed out here. I'm very glad I've seen the North
Sea in a fury, but I should not care to be a mere coddled amateur, nor
would any one else that I work with."

"Quite right, madam," said the professor, nodding his head with the
gravity of all Cambridge; "and I should like to see women taking part in
the management of our sea hospitals if the scheme is ever to be any more
than a dream. The talking women are like the talking men: they squabble,
they recriminate, they screech and air their vanity, and they mess up
every business they touch. But if you have committee work to do, and
want economy and expedition, then give me one or two lady members to
assist."

Then Blair called, "Come along, skipper; she's going easy. Bring up one
or two of the men and we'll have some singing."

Now the ordinary sailor sings songs with the merriest or most blackguard
words to the most dirge-like tunes; but our fishermen sing religious
words to the liveliest tunes they can learn. I notice they are fonder of
waltz rhythms than of any others. The merchant sailor will drawl the
blackguard "I'll go no more a-roving" to an air like a prolonged wail;
the fisherman sings "Home, beautiful home" as a lovely waltz. Blair
always encouraged the men to sing a great deal, and therein he showed
the same discretion as good merchant mates.

I cannot describe Freeman's ecstasies, and I wish I could only give an
idea of the helmsman's musical method. This latter worthy had easy
steering to do, so he joined in; he was fond of variety, and he sang
some lines in a high falsetto which sounded like the whistling of the
gaff (with perhaps a touch of razor-grinding added); then just when you
expected him to soar off at a tangent to Patti's topmost A, he let his
voice fall to his boots, and emitted a most bloodcurdling bass growl,
which carried horrid suggestions of midnight fiends and ghouls and the
silent tomb. Still, his mates thought he was a musical prodigy; he was
entranced with the sweetness and power of his own performance, and the
passengers were more than amused, so every one was satisfied.

The gentlemen who vary my slumbers by howling "The Rollicking R