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- 2552
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 2485
- text
- CHAPTER XIII.
HE HAS A FINE DAY AT SEA, BEGINS TO LIKE IT; BUT CHANGES HIS MIND
The second day out of port, the decks being washed down and breakfast
over, the watch was called, and the mate set us to work.
It was a very bright day. The sky and water were both of the same deep
hue; and the air felt warm and sunny; so that we threw off our jackets.
I could hardly believe that I was sailing in the same ship I had been
in during the night, when every thing had been so lonely and dim; and I
could hardly imagine that this was the same ocean, now so beautiful and
blue, that during part of the night-watch had rolled along so black and
forbidding.
There were little traces of sunny clouds all over the heavens; and
little fleeces of foam all over the sea; and the ship made a strange,
musical noise under her bows, as she glided along, with her sails all
still. It seemed a pity to go to work at such a time; and if we could
only have sat in the windlass again; or if they would have let me go
out on the bowsprit, and lay down between the _manropes_ there, and
look over at the fish in the water, and think of home, I should have
been almost happy for a time.
I had now completely got over my sea-sickness, and felt very well; at
least in my body, though my heart was far from feeling right; so that I
could now look around me, and make observations.
And truly, though we were at sea, there was much to behold and wonder
at; to me, who was on my first voyage. What most amazed me was the
sight of the great ocean itself, for we were out of sight of land. All
round us, on both sides of the ship, ahead and astern, nothing was to
be seen but water—water—water; not a single glimpse of green shore, not
the smallest island, or speck of moss any where. Never did I realize
till now what the ocean was: how grand and majestic, how solitary, and
boundless, and beautiful and blue; for that day it gave no tokens of
squalls or hurricanes, such as I had heard my father tell of; nor could
I imagine, how any thing that seemed so playful and placid, could be
lashed into rage, and troubled into rolling avalanches of foam, and
great cascades of waves, such as I saw in the end.
As I looked at it so mild and sunny, I could not help calling to mind
my little brother’s face, when he was sleeping an infant in the cradle.
It had just such a happy, careless, innocent look; and every happy
little wave seemed gamboling about like a thoughtless little kid in a
pasture; and seemed to look up in your face as it passed, as if it
wanted to be patted and caressed. They seemed all live things with
hearts in them, that could feel; and I almost felt grieved, as we
sailed in among them, scattering them under our broad bows in
sun-flakes, and riding over them like a great elephant among lambs. But
what seemed perhaps the most strange to me of all, was a certain
wonderful rising and falling of the sea; I do not mean the waves
themselves, but a sort of wide heaving and swelling and sinking all
over the ocean. It was something I can not very well describe; but I
know very well what it was, and how it affected me. It made me almost
dizzy to look at it; and yet I could not keep my eyes off it, it seemed
so passing strange and wonderful.
I felt as if in a dream all the time; and when I could shut the ship
out, almost thought I was in some new, fairy world, and expected to
hear myself called to, out of the clear blue air, or from the depths of
the deep blue sea. But I did not have much leisure to indulge in such
thoughts; for the men were now getting some _stun’-sails_ ready to
hoist aloft, as the wind was getting fairer and fairer for us; and
these stun’-sails are light canvas which are spread at such times, away
out beyond the ends of the yards, where they overhang the wide water,
like the wings of a great bird.
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