Wherever
smoke was seen coming out, we calked and pasted, and, so far as we
could, made the ship smoke tight. The captain and officers slept under
the awning which was spread over the quarter-deck; and we stowed
ourselves away under an old studding-sail, which we drew over one side
of the forecastle. The next day, from fear that something might
happen, orders were given for no one to leave the ship, and, as the
decks were lumbered up with everything, we could not wash them down,
so we had nothing to do, all day long. Unfortunately, our books were
where we could not get at them, and we were turning about for
something to do, when one man recollected a book he had left in the
galley. He went after it, and it proved to be Woodstock. This was a
great windfall, and as all could not read it at once, I, being the
scholar of the company, was appointed reader. I got a knot of six or
eight about me, and no one could have had a more attentive audience.
Some laughed at the "scholars," and went over the other side of the
forecastle, to work, and spin their yarns; but I carried the day,
and had the cream of the crew for my hearers.
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