The rain all this time was beating on me, and I was drenched to the
skin. I must have slept for four hours or so, when I was awakened by a
rough thump on the side from the stumbling foot of the captain of the
top, the word having been passed to shake a reef out of the topsails,
the wind having rather suddenly gone down. It was done; and now broad
awake, I determined not to be caught napping again, so I descended, and
swung myself in on deck out of the main rigging, just as Mr. Treenail
was mustering the crew at eight bells. When I landed on the
quarterdeck, there he stood abaft the binnacle, with the light shining
on his face, his glazed hat glancing, and the rain-drop sparkling at
the brim of it. He had noticed me the moment I descended.
"Heyday, Master Cringle, you are surely out of your watch. Why, what
are you doing here, eh?"
I stepped up to him, and told him the truth, that, being overfatigued,
I had fallen asleep in the top.
"Well, well, boy," said he, "never mind, go below, and turn in; if you
don't take your rest, you never will be a sailor."
"But what do you see aloft?" glancing his eye upwards, and all the crew
on deck, as I passed them, looked anxiously up also amongst the
rigging, as if wondering what I saw there, for I had been so chilled in
my snoose, that my neck, from resting in the cold on the coil of rope,
had become stiffened and rigid to an intolerable degree; and although,
when I first came on deck, I had, by a strong exertion, brought my
_caput_ to its proper bearings, yet the moment I was dismissed by my
superior officer, I for my own comfort was glad to conform to the
contraction of the muscle, whereby I once more strayed along the deck,
_glowering_ up into the heavens, as if I had seen some wonderful sight
there.
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