A Little To Leeward Of This Was A
Small Cluster Of Islands, Where We Were Going To Refit, Abounding With
Delicious Fruits, And Peopled By A Race Almost Wholly Unsophisticated
By Intercourse With Strangers.
In order, perhaps, to guard against the possibility of anyone finding
out the precise latitude and longitude of the spot we were going to,
Jermin never revealed to us the ship's place at noon, though such is
the custom aboard of most vessels.
Meanwhile, he was very assiduous in his attention to the invalids.
Doctor Long Ghost having given up the keys of the medicine-chest,
they were handed over to him; and, as physician, he discharged his
duties to the satisfaction of all. Pills and powders, in most cases,
were thrown to the fish, and in place thereof, the contents of a
mysterious little quarter cask were produced, diluted with water from
the "butt." His draughts were mixed on the capstan, in cocoa-nut
shells marked with the patients' names. Like shore doctors, he did
not eschew his own medicines, for his professional calls in the
forecastle were sometimes made when he was comfortably tipsy: nor did
he omit keeping his invalids in good-humour, spinning his yarns to
them, by the hour, whenever he went to see them.
Owing to my lameness, from which I soon began to recover, I did no
active duty, except standing an occasional "trick" at the helm. It
was in the forecastle chiefly, that I spent my time, in company with
the Long Doctor, who was at great pains to make himself agreeable.
His books, though sadly torn and tattered, were an invaluable
resource. I read them through again and again, including a learned
treatise on the yellow fever. In addition to these, he had an old
file of Sydney papers, and I soon became intimately acquainted with
the localities of all the advertising tradesmen there. In particular,
the rhetorical flourishes of Stubbs, the real-estate auctioneer,
diverted me exceedingly, and I set him down as no other than a pupil
of Robins the Londoner.
Aside from the pleasure of his society, my intimacy with Long Ghost
was of great service to me in other respects. His disgrace in the
cabin only confirmed the good-will of the democracy in the
forecastle; and they not only treated him in the most friendly
manner, but looked up to him with the utmost deference, besides
laughing heartily at all his jokes. As his chosen associate, this
feeling for him extended to me, and gradually we came to be regarded
in the light of distinguished guests. At meal-times we were always
first served, and otherwise were treated with much respect.
Among other devices to kill time, during the frequent calms, Long
Ghost hit upon the game of chess. With a jack-knife, we carved the
pieces quite tastefully out of bits of wood, and our board was the
middle of a chest-lid, chalked into squares, which, in playing, we
straddled at either end.
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