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subject, among a certain portion of the great American family--the
god-like Anglo-Saxon--that certainly leads to great results in one
respect; but which it is often painful to regard, and never agreeable to
any but themselves, to be subject to. Of this school was Daggett, whom no
dangers, no toil, no thoughts of a future, could divert from a purpose
that was coloured by gold. We do not mean to say that other nations are
not just as mercenary; many are more so; those, in particular, that have
long been corrupted by vicious governments. You may buy half a dozen
Frenchmen, for instance, more easily than one Yankee; but let the last
actually get his teeth into a dollar, and the muzzle of the ox fares worse
in the jaws of the bull-dog.
Roswell was deeply reluctant to protract his stay in the group; but
professional pride would have prevented him from deserting a consort under
such circumstances, had not a better feeling inclined him to remain and
assist Daggett. It is true the last had, in a manner, thrust himself on
him, and the connection had been strangely continued down to that moment;
but this he viewed as a dispensation of Providence, to which he was bound
to submit. The result was a declaration of a design to stand by his
companion as long as there was any hope of getting the injured craft home.
This decision pointed at once to the delay of another week. No time was
lost in vain regrets, however; but all hands went to work to get the
schooner into shallow water again, and to look further for the principal
leak. Accurate trimming and pumping showed that a good deal of the water
was already stopped out; but too much still entered to render it prudent
to think of sailing until the injury was repaired. This time the schooner
was not suffered to lie on her bilge at all. She was taken into water just
deep enough to permit her to stand upright, sustained by shores, while the
tide left two or three streaks dry forward; it being the intention to wind
her, should the examination forward not be successful.
On stripping off the copper, it was found that a wood-end had indeed
started, the inner edge of the plank having got as far from its bed as
where the outer had been originally placed. This opened a crack through
which a small stream of water must constantly pour, each hour rendering
the leak more dangerous by loosening the oakum, and raising the plank from
its curvature. Once discovered, however, nothing was easier than to repair
the damage. It remained merely to butt-bolt anew the wood-end, drive a few
spikes, cork, and replace the copper. Roswell, who was getting each moment
more and more impatient to sail, was much vexed at a delay that really
seemed unavoidable, as it arose from the particular position of the leak.
Placed as it was, in a manner, between wind and water, it was not possible
to work at it more than an hour each tide; and the staging permitted but
two hands to be busy at the same time. As a consequence of these
embarrassments, no less than six tides came in and went out, before the
stem was pronounced tight again. The schooner was then pumped out, and the
vessel was once more taken into deep water. This time it was found that
the patience and industry of our sealers were rewarded with success; no
leak of any account existing.
"She's as tight as a bottle with a sealed cork, Gar'ner," cried Daggett, a
few hours after his craft was at her anchor, meeting his brother-master at
his own gangway, and shaking hands with him cordially. "I owe much of this
to you, as all on the Vineyard shall know, if we ever get home ag'in."
"I am rejoiced that it turns out so, Captain Daggett," was Roswell's
reply; "for to own the truth to you, the fortnight we have lost, or shall
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lose, before we get you stowed and ready to sail again, has made a great
change in our weather. The days are shortening with frightful rapidity,
and the great bay was actually covered with a skim of ice this very
morning. The wind has sent in a sea that has broke it up; but look about
you, in the cove here--a boy might walk on that ice near the rocks."
"There'll be none of it left by night, and the two crews will fill me up
in twenty-four hours. Keep a good heart Gar'ner; I'll take you clear of
the bergs in the course of the week."
"I have less fear of the bergs now, than of the new ice and the floes. The
islands must have got pretty well to the northward by this time; but each
night gets colder, and the fields seem to be setting back towards the
group, instead of away from it."
Daggett cheered his companion by a good deal of confident talk; but
Roswell was heartily rejoiced when, at the end of four-and-twenty hours
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