[lemma=the] | [□]
[lemma=the] | [□=□]
[lemma=the] | [□ | □]
There he lay , upon a mat , on the ground , which was the only floor of the oven , with no medicine , no comforts , and no one to care for , or help him , but a few Kanakas , who were willing enough , but could do nothing . We were not mistaken in the coldness of the weather , for a white frost was on the ground , a thing we had never seen before in California , and one or two little puddles of fresh water were skimmed over with a thin coat of ice . The women stood upright , with their hands down by their sides , their eyes fixed upon the ground before them , and slided about without any perceptible means of motion ; for their feet were invisible , the hem of their dresses forming a perfect circle about them , reaching to the ground . Accordingly , having picked out a good berth , in the stream , with a good smooth beach opposite , for a landing " Place and within two cables ' length of our hide-house , we moored ship , unbent all the sails , sent down the top-gallant yards and all the studding-sail booms , and housed the top-gallant masts . Were called up at midnight to slip for a violent north-easter , for this rascally hole of San Pedro is unsafe in every wind but a south-wester , which is seldom known to blow more than once in a half century . It was now the first part of May ; and two months would bring us off the cape in July , which is the worst month in the year there ; when the sun rises at nine and sets at three , giving eighteen hours night , and there is snow and rain , gales and high seas , in abundance . Two men threw the hides down from the piles in the house , two more picked them up and put them on a long horizontal pole , raised a few feet from the ground , where they were beaten , by two more , with flails , somewhat like those used in threshing wheat .