A Cube Of Salt Beef,
On A Hard Round Biscuit By Way Of Platter, Was Also Handed Up; And
Without More Ado, I Made A Meal, The Salt Flavour Of Which, After The
Nebuchadnezzar Fare Of The Valley, Was Positively Delicious.
While thus engaged, an old sailor on a chest just under me was puffing
out volumes of tobacco smoke.
My supper finished, he brushed the stem
of his sooty pipe against the sleeve of his frock, and politely waved
it toward me. The attention was sailor-like; as for the nicety of the
thing, no man who has lived in forecastles is at all fastidious; and
so, after a few vigorous whiffs to induce repose, I turned over and
tried my best to forget myself. But in vain. My crib, instead of
extending fore and aft, as it should have done, was placed athwart
ships, that is, at right angles to the keel, and the vessel, going
before the wind, rolled to such a degree, that-every time my heels
went up and my head went down, I thought I was on the point of
turning a somerset. Beside this, there were still more annoying
causes of inquietude; and every once in a while a splash of water
came down the open scuttle, and flung the spray in my face.
At last, after a sleepless night, broken twice by the merciless call
of the watch, a peep of daylight struggled into view from above, and
someone came below. It was my old friend with the pipe.
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