a wrestler's ribs, reply
To the glee, to the glee of the bending tree,
And the crowded canvass high--
(Lay her out!)
And the crowded canvass high;
Contending, to the water's shout,
With the champion of the sky.

Carry on, carry on; reef none, boy, none;
Hang her out on a stretching sail:
Gunnel in, gunnel in! for the race we'll win,
While the land-lubbers so pale--
(Carry on!)
While the land-lubbers so pale
Are fumbling at their points, my son,
For fear of the coming gale!

All but O'More joined in the chorus of the last stanza, and the bold
burst of harmony was swept across the water like a defiance to the
eastern gale. Our challenge was accepted. "Howsomever," said Ingram,
after a pause, and running his glistening eye along the horizon, "as
we are not running a race, there will be no harm in taking in a
handful or two of our cloth this morning; for the wind is chopping
round to the north, and I wouldn't wonder to hear Sculmarten's
breakers under our lee before sunrise."

"And a black spell we will have till then, for when the moon goes down
you may stop your fingers in your eyes for starlight," observed the
other sailor, as he began to slacken down the peak halliards; while
they brought the boat up and took in one reef in the mainsail; but the
word was still "helm a-larboard," and the boat's head had followed the
wind round a whole quarter of the compass within the next ten minutes.
We went off before the breeze, but it continued veering round for the
next hour; so that when we got fairly into the Channel, the
predictions of the seamen were completely fulfilled; for the moon had
set, the wind was from the east, and a hurrying drift had covered all
the sky.

We stood for the north of Man; but the cross sea, produced by the
shifting of the wind, which was fast rising to a gale, buffeted us
with such contrary shocks, that after beating through it almost till
the break of day, we gave up the hope of making Nesshead, and,
altering our course, took in another reef, and ran for the Calf.

But the gale continued to increase; we pitched and plunged to no
purpose; the boat was going bows in at every dip, and the straining of
her timbers as she stooped out to every stretch, told plainly that we
must either have started planks or an altered course again. The
sailors, after some consultation, agreed on putting about; and