her
scanned us very curiously, but the bo'sun took off his head-gear, with a
clumsy grace that well became him; at which Mistress Madison smiled very
kindly upon him, and, after that, she told me with great frankness that
he pleased her, and, more, that she had never seen so great a man, which
was not strange seeing that she had seen but few since she had come to
years when men become of interest to a maid.

After saluting us the bo'sun called out to the second mate that he would
tow us round to the far side of the island, and to this the officer
agreed, being, I surmised, by no means sorry to put some solid matter
between himself and the desolation of the great weed-continent; and so,
having loosed the hawser, which fell from the hill-top with a prodigious
splash, we had the boat head, towing. In this wise we opened out,
presently, the end of the hill; but feeling now the force of the breeze,
we bent a kedge to the hawser, and, the bo'sun carrying it seawards, we
warped ourselves to windward of the island, and here, in forty fathoms,
we vast heaving, and rode to the kedge.

Now when this was accomplished they called to our men to come aboard, and
this they did, and spent all of that day in talk and eating; for those in
the ship could scarce make enough of our fellows. And then, when it had
come to night, they replaced that part of the superstructure which they
had removed from about the head of the mizzen-stump, and so, all being
secure, each one turned-in and had a full night's rest, of the which,
indeed, many of them stood in sore need.

The following morning, the second mate had a consultation with the
bo'sun, after which he gave the order to commence upon the removal of the
great superstructure, and to this each one of us set himself with vigor.
Yet it was a work requiring some time, and near five days had passed
before we had the ship stripped clear. When this had been accomplished,
there came a busy time of routing out various matter of which we should
have need in jury rigging her; for they had been so long in disuse, that
none remembered where to look for them. At this a day and a half was
spent, and after that we set-to about fitting her with such jury-masts as
we could manage from our material.

Now, after the ship had been dismasted, all those seven years gone, the
crew had been able to save many of her spars, these having remained
attached to her, through their inability to cut away all of the gear; and