We gave a look aloft, and knew
that our work was not done yet; and, sure enough, no sooner did the
mate see that we were on deck, than- "Lay aloft there, four of you,
and furl the top-gallant sails!" This called me again, and two of us
went aloft, up the fore rigging, and two more up the main, upon the
top-gallant yards. The shrouds were now iced over, the sleet having
formed a crust or cake round all the standing rigging, and on the
weather side of the masts and yards. When we got upon the yard, my
hands were so numb that I could not have cast off the knot of the
gasket to have saved my life. We both lay over the yard for a few
seconds, beating our hands upon the sail, until we started the blood
into our fingers' ends, and at the next moment our hands were in a
burning heat. 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.
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