l, after we reached the pleasant latitudes,
all hands were employed from eight o'clock in the morning until six
o'clock in the evening in knotting yarns, twisting spunyarn,
weaving mats, braiding sinnett, making reef-points and gaskets, and
manufacturing small rope to be used for "royal rigging," for among the
ingenious expedients devised by the second mate for keeping the crew
employed was the absurd and unprofitable one of changing the snug pole
royal masts into "sliding gunters," with royal yards athwart, man-of-war
fashion.

Sunday on board the Clarissa was welcomed as a day of respite from hard
labor. The crew on that day had "watch and watch," which gave them
an opportunity to attend to many little duties connected with their
individual comforts, that had been neglected during the previous week.
This is exemplified in a conversation I had with Newhall, one of my
watchmates, one pleasant Sunday morning, after breakfast.

"Heigh-ho," sighed Newhall, with a sepulchral yawn; "Sunday has come at
last, and I am glad. It is called a day of rest, but is no day of rest
for me. I have a thousand things to do this forenoon; one hour has
passed away already, and I don't know which to do first."

"Indeed! What have you to do to-day more than usual," I inquired.

"Not much out of the usual way, perhaps, Hawser. But I must shave and
change my clothes. Although we can't go to meeting, it's well enough
for a fellow to look clean and decent, at least once a week. I must also
wash a couple of shirts, make a cap out of a piece of canvas trousers,
stop a leak in my pea-jacket, read a chapter in the Bible, which I
promised my grandmother in Lynnfield I would do every Sunday, and bottle
off an hour's sleep."

"Well, then," said I, "if you have so much to do, no time is to be
lost. You had better go to work at once."

"So I will," said he; "and as an hour's sleep is the most important of
all, I'll make sure of that to begin with, for fear of accidents. So,
here goes."

And into his berth he tumbled "all standing," and was neither seen nor
heard until the watch was called at twelve o'clock.

But little time was given for the performance of religious duties on
the Sabbath; indeed, in the times of which I write, such duties among
sailors were little thought of. Religious subjects were not often
discussed in a ship's forecastle, and even the distinction between
various religious sects and creeds was unheeded, perhaps unknown. And
y