do your duty like men,--then you'll fare well enough;--if you don't,
you'll fare hard enough,--I can tell you. If we pull together, you'll
find me a clever fellow; if we don't, you'll find me a bloody rascal.
--That's all I've got to say.--Go below, the larboard watch!"

I being in the starboard or second mate's watch, had the opportunity
of keeping the first watch at sea. S-----, a young man, making, like
myself, his first voyage, was in the same watch, and as he was the
son of a professional man, and had been in a counting-room in Boston,
we found that we had many friends and topics in common. We talked
these matters over,--Boston, what our friends were probably doing,
our voyage, etc., until he went to take his turn at the look-out,
and left me to myself. I had now a fine time for reflection. I felt
for the first time the perfect silence of the sea. The officer was
walking the quarter deck, where I had no right to go, one or two men
were talking on the forecastle, whom I had little inclination to join,
so that I was left open to the full impression of everything about me.
However much I was affected by the beauty of the sea, the bright stars,
and the clouds driven swiftly over them, I could not but remember that
I was separating myself from all the social and intellectual enjoyments
of life. Yet, strange as it may seem, I did then and afterwards take
pleasure in these reflections, hoping by them to prevent my becoming
insensible to the value of what I was leaving.

But all my dreams were soon put to flight by an order from the
officer to trim the yards, as the wind was getting ahead; and I
could plainly see by the looks the sailors occasionally cast to
windward, and by the dark clouds that were fast coming up, that we
had bad weather to prepare for, and had heard the captain say that
he expected to be in the Gulf Stream by twelve o'clock. In a few