"I guess," said I, "Captain, the 'Spitfire' will have to put into
Halifax to report herself and be surveyed, so we may pursue our course
in peace. But this 'Black Hawk' is a doll, ain't she? don't she skim
over the water like a sea gull? The truth is, Cutler, when you ain't
in a hurry, and want to enjoy yourself at sea, as I always do, for I
am a grand sailor, give me a clipper. She is so light and buoyant, and
the motion so elastic, it actilly exilerates your spirits. There is
something like life in her gait, and you have her in hand like a
horse, and you feel as if you were her master, and directed her
movements. I ain't sure you don't seem as if you were part of her
yourself. Then there is room to show skill and seamanship, and if you
don't in reality go as quick as a steamer, you seem to go faster, if
there is no visible object to measure your speed by, and that is
something, for the white foam on the leeward side rushes by you in
rips, raps, and rainbows like Canadian rapids.

"Then if she is an atrysilly1 like this, and she is doing her
prettiest, and actilly laughs again, she is so pleased, why you are
satisfied, for you don't make the breeze, you take it as you find it,
like all other good gifts of Providence, and say, 'ain't she going
like wink, how she forges ahead, don't she?' Your attention is kept
alive, too, watchin' the wind, and trimmin' sail to it accordingly,
and the jolly 'Oh, heave oh,' of the sailors is music one loves to
listen to, and if you wish to take a stretch for it in your cloak on
deck, on the sunny or shady side of the companion-way, the breeze
whistles a nice soft lullaby for you, and you are off in the land of
Nod in no time."


1 The Atricilla, or laughing sea-gull. Its note resembles a coarse