ling me a greedy
young thief. Let me not eat another cabin biscuit, he said, or he'd do
to me what they always did to thieves:--drag them under the ship from
one side to another, so that the barnacles would cut them (as he said)
into Spanish sennet-work. When I answered him, he lost his temper, in
sailor fashion, saying that if I said another word he'd make me sick
that ever I learned to speak.

I will not go into the details of the rest of that first day's misery.
I was kept hard at work for the whole time of daylight, often at work
beyond my strength, always at work quite strange to me. Nobody in the
ship, except perhaps the mate, troubled to show me how to do these
strange tasks; but all swore at me for not doing them rightly. What
I felt most keenly was the injustice of their verdicts upon me. I was
being condemned by them as a dirty, snivelling, lying, thieving young
hound. They took a savage pleasure in telling me how I should come to
dance on air at Cuckold's Haven, or, in other words, to the gallows, if
I went on as I had begun. Whereas (but for my dishonest moment in the
morning) I had worked like a slave since dawn under every possible
disadvantage which hasty men could place in my way. After serving the
cabin supper that night I was free to go to my hammock. There was not
much to be glad for, except the rest after so much work. I went with
a glad heart, for I was tired out. The wind had drawn to the east,
freshening as it came ahead, so that there was no chance of our reaching
our destination for some days. I had the prospect of similar daily
slavery in the schooner at least till our arrival. My nights would be my
only pleasant hours till then. The noise of the waves breaking on board
the schooner kept me awake during the night, tired as I was. It is a
dreadful noise, when heard for the first time. I did not then know what
a mass of water can come aboard a ship without doing much harm. So, when
the head of a wave, rushing across the deck, came with a swish down the
hatch to wash the 'tweendecks I started up in my hammock, pretty well
startled. I soon learned that all was well, for I heard the sailors
laughing in their rough, swearing fashion as they piled a tarpaulin over
the open hatch-mouth. A moment later, eight bells were struck. Some of
the sailors having finished their watch, came down into the 'tweendecks
to rest. Two of them stepped very quietly to the chest below my
hammock, where they sat down to pl