[tag=PRP | tag=□]
[tag=PRP | tag=NNPS]
[tag=PRP | tag=PRP]
One of them was not so ill ; and was moving about , smoking his pipe , and talking , and trying to keep up his spirits ; but the other , who was my friend , and Aikane - Hope , was the most dreadful object I had ever seen in my life : his eyes sunken and dead , his cheeks fallen in against his teeth , his hands looking like claws ; a dreadful cough , which seemed to rack his whole shattered system , a hollow whispering voice , and an entire inability to move himself . The town looked just as it did when I saw it last , which was eleven months before , in the brig Pilgrim . Industry was the order of the day , and every one did something for himself ; for we knew that as the season advanced , and we went further south , we should have no evenings to work in . A sailor knows too well that his life hangs upon a thread , to wish to be always reminded of it ; so , if a man has an escape , he keeps it to himself , or makes a joke of it . All their terms of affection and gratitude were spent upon me , and in a sense wasted , ( for I could not understand half of them , ) yet they made all known by their manner . He gave me a strong gripe with his hand ; and I told him , if he came to Boston again , not to fail to find me out , and let me see an old watchmate . My companion on the yard was a lad , who came out in the ship a weak , puny boy , from one of the Boston schools ; - " no larger than a spritsail sheet knot , " nor " heavier than a paper of lampblack , " and " not strong enough to haul a shad off a gridiron , " but who was now " as long as a spare topmast , strong enough to knock down an ox , and hearty enough to eat him . The notion that I was not " one of them , " which , by a participation in all their labor and hardships , and having no favor shown me , had been laid asleep , was beginning to revive . As we had now been about a year on the coast , it was time to think of the voyage home ; and knowing that the last two or three months of our stay would be very busy ones , and that we should never have so good an opportunity to work for ourselves as the present , we all employed our evenings in making clothes for the passage home , and more especially for Cape Horn . " Sails " ( the sailmaker ) tried to comfort him , and told him he was a bloody fool to give up his grub for any woman 's daughter , and reminded him that he had told him a dozen times that he 'd never see or hear from his wife again . We felt as though we were tied to California ; and some of the crew swore that they never should get clear of the bloody coast . Our steward was ashore three days , making pastry and cake , and some of the best of our stores were sent off with him . Finding himself disappointed at headquarters , he edged along forward to the mate , who was overseeing some work on the forecastle , and tried to begin a yarn ; but it would not do . Yet here he was , with his passage given him , ( as I afterwards learned , ) for he had not the means of paying for it , and living upon the charity of our agent . He spent his own money and nearly all the stores among the half-bloods upon the beach , and being turned away , went up to the Presidio , where he lived the life of a desperate " loafer , " until some rascally deed sent him off " between two days , " with men on horseback , dogs , and Indians in full cry after him , among the hills . I was nearly half an hour out on the end of the fore yard , trying to coil away and stop down the topmast studding-sail tack and lower halyards . I was so lost in the sight , that I forgot the presence of the man who came out with me , until he said , ( for he , too , rough old man-of-war's-man as he was , had been gazing at the show , ) half to himself , still looking at the marble sails - " How quietly they do their work ! Accordingly , we went upon the yard ; and never shall I forget that piece of work . They began soon after we came on board , and kept it up until after two bells , when the second mate came forward and called " the Alerts away ! He worked along up to San Francisco , and was living on a rancho near there , while we were in port . After this , came shaving , and combing , and brushing ; and when , having spent the first part of the day in this way , we sat down on the forecastle , in the afternoon , with clean duck trowsers , and shirts on , washed , shaved , and combed , and looking a dozen shades lighter for it , reading , sewing , and talking at our ease , with a clear sky and warm sun over our heads , a steady breeze over the larboard quarter , studding-sails out alow and aloft , and all the flying kites aboard ; - we felt that we had got back into the pleasantest part of a sailor 's life .