a gant-line; with the end of this a bowline is taken round the stay,
into which the man gets with his bucket of tar and a bunch of oakum,
and the other end being fast on deck, with some one to tend it, he
is lowered down gradually, and tars the stay carefully as he goes.
There he "sings aloft 'twixt heaven and earth," and if the rope slips,
breaks, or is let go, or if the bowline slips, he falls overboard or
breaks his neck. This, however, is a thing which never enters into
a sailor's calculation. He thinks only of leaving no holydays,
(places not tarred,) for in case he should, he would have to go
over the whole again; or of dropping no tar upon deck, for then
there would be a soft word in his ear from the mate. In this manner
I tarred down all the head-stays, but found the rigging about the
jib-booms, martingale, and spritsail yard, upon which I was afterwards
put, the hardest. Here you have to hang on with your eye-lids and tar
with your hands.

This dirty work could not last forever, and on Saturday night we
finished it, scraped all the spots from the deck and rails, and,
what was of more importance to us, cleaned ourselves thoroughly,
rolled up our tarry frocks and trowsers and laid them away for the
next occasion, and put on our clean duck clothes, and had a good
comfortable sailor's Saturday night. The next day was pleasant,
and indeed we had but one unpleasant Sunday during the whole voyage,
and that was off Cape Horn, where we could expect nothing better.
On Monday we commenced painting, and getting the vessel ready for
port. This work, too, is done by the crew, and every sailor who
has been long voyages is a little of a painter, in addition to his
other accomplishments. We painted her, both inside and out, from
the truck to the water's edge. The outside is painted by lowering
stages over the side by ropes, and on those we sat, with our brushes