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- 377
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 321
- text
- I do not know how to account for this temporary madness of mine, unless
it was, that I had been reading in a story-book about Captain Kidd’s
ship, that lay somewhere at the bottom of the Hudson near the
Highlands, full of gold as it could be; and that a company of men were
trying to dive down and get the treasure out of the hold, which no one
had ever thought of doing before, though there she had lain for almost
a hundred years.
Not to speak of the tall masts, and yards, and rigging of this famous
ship, among whose mazes of spun-glass I used to rove in imagination,
till I grew dizzy at the main-truck, I will only make mention of the
people on board of her. They, too, were all of glass, as beautiful
little glass sailors as any body ever saw, with hats and shoes on, just
like living men, and curious blue jackets with a sort of ruffle round
the bottom. Four or five of these sailors were very nimble little
chaps, and were mounting up the rigging with very long strides; but for
all that, they never gained a single inch in the year, as I can take my
oath.
Another sailor was sitting astride of the spanker-boom, with his arms
over his head, but I never could find out what that was for; a second
was in the fore-top, with a coil of glass rigging over his shoulder;
the cook, with a glass ax, was splitting wood near the fore-hatch; the
steward, in a glass apron, was hurrying toward the cabin with a plate
of glass pudding; and a glass dog, with a red mouth, was barking at
him; while the captain in a glass cap was smoking a glass cigar on the
quarterdeck. He was leaning against the bulwark, with one hand to his
head; perhaps he was unwell, for he looked very glassy out of the eyes.
The name of this curious ship was _La Reine,_ or The Queen, which was
painted on her stern where any one might read it, among a crowd of
glass dolphins and sea-horses carved there in a sort of semicircle.
And this Queen rode undisputed mistress of a green glassy sea, some of
whose waves were breaking over her bow in a wild way, I can tell you,
and I used to be giving her up for lost and foundered every moment,
till I grew older, and perceived that she was not in the slightest
danger in the world.
A good deal of dust, and fuzzy stuff like down, had in the course of
many years worked through the joints of the case, in which the ship was
kept, so as to cover all the sea with a light dash of white, which if
any thing improved the general effect, for it looked like the foam and
froth raised by the terrible gale the good Queen was battling against.
So much for _La Reine._ We have her yet in the house, but many of her
glass spars and ropes are now sadly shattered and broken,—but I will
not have her mended; and her figurehead, a gallant warrior in a
cocked-hat, lies pitching headforemost down into the trough of a
calamitous sea under the bows—but I will not have him put on his legs
again, till I get on my own; for between him and me there is a secret
sympathy; and my sisters tell me, even yet, that he fell from his perch
the very day I left home to go to sea on this _my first voyage._
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