Next
to seeing land, there is no sight which makes one realize more that he
is drawing near home, than to see the same heavens, under which he was
born, shining at night over his head. The weather was extremely hot,
with the usual tropical alternations of a scorching sun and squalls of
rain; yet not a word was said in complaint of the heat, for we all
remembered that only three or four weeks before we would have given
nearly our all to have been where we now were. We had plenty of water,
too, which we caught by spreading an awning, with shot thrown in to
make hollows. These rain squalls came up in the manner usual between
the tropics.- A clear sky; burning, vertical sun; work going lazily
on, and men about decks with nothing but duck trowsers, checked
shirts, and straw hats; the ship moving as lazily through the water;
the man at the helm resting against the wheel, with his hat drawn over
his eyes; the captain below, taking an afternoon nap; the passenger
leaning over the taffrail, watching a dolphin following slowly in
our wake; the sailmaker mending an old topsail on the lee side of
the quarterdeck; the carpenter working at his bench, in the waist; the
boys making sinner; the spun-yarn winch whizzing round and round,
and the men walking slowly fore and aft with their yarns.
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