This course soon
restored his appetite and strength; and in ten days after we spoke the
Solon, so rapid was his recovery, that, from lying helpless and almost
hopeless in his berth, he was at the mast-head, furling a royal.
With a fine south-west wind, we passed inside of the Bermudas; and
notwithstanding the old couplet, which was quoted again and again by
those who thought we should have one more touch of a storm before
our voyage was up,--
"If the Bermudas let you pass,
You must beware of Hatteras-"
we were to the northward of Hatteras, with good weather, and beginning
to count, not the days, but the hours, to the time when we should be
at anchor in Boston harbor.
Our ship was in fine order, all hands having been hard at work
upon her from daylight to dark, every day but Sunday, from the time we
got into warm weather on this side the Cape.
It is a common notion with landsmen that a ship is in her finest
condition when she leaves port to enter upon her voyage; and that
she comes home, after a long absence,
"With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails;
Lean, rent and beggared by the strumpet wind.
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