There is more kindness
shown by the officers to the crew, and by the crew to one another.
There is more quietness and seriousness. The oath and the loud laugh
are gone. The officers are more watchful, and the crew go more
carefully aloft. The lost man is seldom mentioned, or is dismissed
with a sailor's rude eulogy- "Well, poor George is gone! His cruise
is up soon! He knew his work, and did his duty, and was a good
shipmate." Then usually follows some allusion to another world, for
sailors are almost all believers; but their notions and opinions are
unfixed and at loose ends. They says- "God won't be hard upon the
poor fellow," and seldom get beyond the common phrase which seems to
imply that their sufferings and hard treatment here will excuse them
hereafter,- "To work hard, live hard, die hard, and go to hell after
all, would be hard indeed!" Our cook, a simple-hearted old African,
who had been through a good deal in his day, and was rather
seriously inclined, always going to church twice a day when on
shore, and reading his Bible on a Sunday in the galley, talked to
the crew about spending their Sabbaths badly, and told them that
they might go as suddenly as George had, and be as little prepared.
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