He Was Too Intent Upon Seeing Her Safe In The Boat.
He Watched Her All The Way Ashore, Where, Upon
Her landing, she was
received by a whole troop of her kind, who had been sent ashore from
the other
Vessels, and had multiplied and formed a large commonwealth.
From the door of his galley, the cook used to watch them in their
manoeuvres, setting up a shout and clapping his hands whenever Bess
came off victorious in the struggles for pieces of raw hide and
half-picked bones which were lying about the beach. During the day,
he saved all the nice things, and made a bucket of swill, and asked
us to take it ashore in the gig, and looked quite disconcerted when
the mate told him that he would pitch the swill overboard, and him
after it, if he saw any of it go into the boats. We told him that
he thought more about the pig than he did about his wife, who lived
down in Robinson's Alley; and, indeed, he could hardly have been
more attentive, for he actually, on several nights, after dark,
when he thought he would not he seen, sculled himself ashore in a
boat with a bucket of nice swill, and returned like Leander from
crossing the Hellespont.
The next Sunday the other half of our crew went ashore on liberty,
and left us on board, to enjoy the first quiet Sunday which we
had had upon the coast. Here were no hides to come off, and no
south-easters to fear.
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