The Press., 1890-02-06

6S the sky. The six boys,
 % SO soon to be misera- ble, gathered in cluster on deck. Jed Coles proposed that we ''spin yarns" It was the nautically correct way of pass ing the time. So we "spun yarns" or at least Jed did. He had a batch ready for the occasion. He sat on a tub, put an enormous chew of tobacco in his mouth, hitched up his trousers and felt every inch a sailor. noticed the second mate, that incarnation of evil and bru- tality, lowering about us, dark as it was. I saw his fiendish grin and the glare of his greenish eye. A precious lot of young fools we must have seemed to him. A little after our yarn spinning was interrupted by shrieks and cries of distress proceeding from the forward part of the ship. We had then our first exhibition of the manner of enforcing American merchant service discipline.
 The second mate was beating Cum- mings, simple being, who, having sailed only in ''fore and aft'' coasting vessels, had made the mistake of ship ping as an ordinary seaman on a square rigged craft, and was almost as much at sea in his knowledge of the ropes as the ''boys." This officer had singled out Cummings for his awkwardness as the proper man to s'haze." He was shower ing upon him blows, thick and fast, with the end of one of the forebraces. It was the first time I had ever seen man beaten by one in authority. The cring- ing attitude, the cries, sobs and suppl. cations of a full grown man, and the oaths and terrible ferocity of his casti- gator, were inexpressibly shocking to me. The incident, which was often re- peated during the voyage, broke up our amateur yarning and made us very thoughtful.
 Jedediah Coles was not at all nautical ly loquacious the next night. Then the Gulf Stream gave us touch of it's tan trums. All during the afternoon the sky grew more and more threatening. By dark it was blowing hard. The lighter sails one by one were slowed. Then it blew harder. The mate swore the harder. The captain came on deck and swore at everybody. One of the sboys" asked him if he thought it would be stormy. He considered himself priv
 
 He was a native of the same village. His father and the captain were friends, and his mother and the captains wife visited each other. So he deemed it advisable to establish himself on socia- ble footing with the captain at the con- mencement of the voyage. Poor boy! Never again during the trip did he con- suit the captain meteorologically. He learned speedily the great gulf which yawns between the cabin and the fore castle.
 It grew dark, the waves became big ger and bigger, and the ship seemed taxed to her utmost trying to chamber them one after another as they presented themselves. The mates came out in their oilskins.
 When the order came to reef, and saw the men clanbering up the fore and main rigging, I added myself to their , number, though felt I should never come down again-at least in one piece. It was my debut aloft off soundings. Many time had I clambered about the rigging of the old whalers as they lay at the village wharf, but they were not roaring, kicking and plunging like this vessel. Heavy seamen's boots kicked me in the face as followed their wear CTS up this awful ascent; ether heavy boots trod on my fingers; they shook the ratlines, too, in most uncomfortable manner. The mast strained and groaned fearfully. Somehow, after climbing over some awful chasms, got on the yard with the men. l dared not go out far. The foot rope wobbled, jerked and gave way under me at times with the weight and motion of the men upon it. The great sail seemed in no humor to be furled. It hauled away from us, bellied, puffed and kept up gigantic series of laundering flaps. Laying over on the yard the men would gather in as much of the hard, wet, wirelike canvas as pos sible and then together haul back on it.
 This objected to. It was risky enough to lay out on an enormous stick sixty feet in the air, while the wind tore our voices from us and seemed to hurl the words far away ere they had well got out of our mouths, and the white topped waves, d1mly seen below, seemed leap ing up and snatching at us But at that height, and amid all that motion, to bal auce ones body on the stomach, grasp with outstretched arms hard roll of struggling. wet canvas, while the legs were as far extended the other way and the feet resting only against rope work ing and wobbling and giving way here and there from the weight of fifteen hundred pounds of men unequally dis. tributed over it, was task and seeming risk too great for my courage. I dared do nothing but hold on. The conduct of the n1aintopsail was desperate and out rageous. It seemed straining every nerve supposing, for the sake of forci- ble expression, that it had nerves-to pull us off the yard and into the great deep"
 found myself between two old sail ors. who lost no time in convincing me of my complete and utter worthlessness