11. CHAPTER XI.
HE HELPS WASH THE DECKS, AND THEN GOES TO BREAKFAST.
The next thing I knew, was the loud thumping of a
handspike on deck as the watch was called again. It was
now four o'clock in the morning, and when we got on deck
the first signs of day were shining in the east. The men
were very sleepy, and sat down on the windlass without
speaking, and some of them nodded and nodded, till at last
they fell off like little boys in church during a drowsy sermon.
At last it was broad day, and an order was given to wash
down the decks. A great tub was dragged into the waist,
and then one of the men went over into the chains, and
slipped in behind a band fastened to the shrouds, and leaning
over, began to swing a bucket into the sea by a long rope;
and in that way with much expertness and sleight of hand,
he managed to fill the tub in a very short time. Then the
water began to splash about all over the decks, and I began
to think I should surely get my feet wet, and catch my death
of cold. So I went to the chief mate, and told him I thought
I would just step below, till this miserable wetting was over;
for I did not have any water-proof boots, and an aunt of
mine had died of consumption. But he only roared out for
me to get a broom and go to scrubbing, or he would prove a
worse consumption to me than ever got hold of my poor
aunt. So I scrubbed away fore and aft, till my back was
almost broke, for the brooms had uncommon short handles,
and we were told to scrub hard.
At length the scrubbing being over, the mate began heaving
buckets of water about, to wash every thing clean, by
way of finishing off. He must have thought this fine sport,
just as captains of fire engines love to point the tube of their
hose; for he kept me running after him with full buckets of
water, and sometimes chased a little chip all over the deck,
with a continued flood, till at last he sent it flying out of a
scupper-hole into the sea; when if he had only given me
permission, I could have picked it up in a trice, and dropped
it overboard without saying one word, and without wasting
so much water. But he said there was plenty of water in
the ocean, and to spare; which was true enough, but then
I who had to trot after him with the buckets, had no more
legs and arms than I wanted for my own use.
I thought this washing down the decks was the most
foolish thing in the world, and besides that it was the most
uncomfortable. It was worse than my mother's house-cleanings
at home, which I used to abominate so.
At eight o'clock the bell was struck, and we went to breakfast.
And now some of the worst of my troubles began.
For not having had any friend to tell me what I would want
at sea, I had not provided myself, as I should have done,
with a good many things that a sailor needs; and for my own
part, it had never entered my mind, that sailors had no table
to sit down to, no cloth, or napkins, or tumblers, and had to
provide every thing themselves. But so it was.
The first thing they did was this. Every sailor went to
the cook-house with his tin pot, and got it filled with coffee;
but of course, having no pot, there was no coffee for me.
And after that, a sort of little tub called a “kid,” was
passed down into the forecastle, filled with something they
called “burgoo.” This was like mush, made of Indian corn,
meal, and water. With the “kid,” a little tin cannikin
was passed down with molasses. Then the Jackson that I
spoke of before, put the kid between his knees, and began to
pour in the molasses, just like an old landlord mixing punch
for a party. He scooped out a little hole in the middle of
the mush, to hold the molasses; so it looked for all the world
like a little black pool in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia.
Then they all formed a circle round the kid; and one
after the other, with great regularity, dipped their spoons
into the mush, and after stirring them round a little in the
molasses-pool, they swallowed down their mouthfuls, and
smacked their lips over it, as if it tasted very good; which
I have no doubt it did; but not having any spoon, I wasn't
sure.
I sat some time watching these proceedings, and wondering
how polite they were to each other; for, though there
were a great many spoons to only one dish, they never got
entangled. At last, seeing that the mush was getting thinner
and thinner, and that it was getting low water, or rather
low molasses in the little pool, I ran on deck, and after
searching about, returned with a bit of stick; and thinking
I had as good a right as any one else to the mush and molasses,
I worked my way into the circle, intending to make
one of the party. So I shoved in my stick, and after twirling
it about, was just managing to carry a little burgoo
toward my mouth, which had been for some time standing
ready open to receive it, when one of the sailors perceiving
what I was about, knocked the stick out of my hands, and
asked me where I learned my manners; Was that the way
gentlemen eat in my country? Did they eat their victuals
with splinters of wood, and couldn't that wealthy gentleman
my father afford to buy his gentlemanly son a spoon?
All the rest joined in, and pronounced me an ill-bred,
coarse, and unmannerly youngster, who, if permitted to go
on with such behavior as that, would corrupt the whole
crew, and make them no better than swine.
As I felt conscious that a stick was indeed a thing very
unsuitable to eat with, I did not say much to this, though it
vexed me enough; but remembering that I had seen one of
the steerage passengers with a pan and spoon in his hand
eating his breakfast on the fore hatch, I now ran on deck
again, and to my great joy succeeded in borrowing his spoon,
for he had got through his meal, and down I came again,
though at the eleventh hour, and offered myself once more
as a candidate.
But alas! there was little more of the Dismal Swamp
left, and when I reached over to the opposite end of the kid,
I received a rap on the knuckles from a spoon, and was told
that I must help myself from my own side, for that was the
rule. But my side was scraped clean, so I got no burgoo
that morning.
But I made it up by eating some salt beef and biscuit,
which I found to be the invariable accompaniment of every
meal; the sailors sitting cross-legged on their chests in a
circle, and breaking the hard biscuit, very sociably, over each
other's heads, which was very convenient indeed, but gave
me the headache, at least for the first four or five days till
I got used to it; and then I did not care much about it,
only it kept my hair full of crumbs; and I had forgot to
bring a fine comb and brush, so I used to shake my hair out
to windward over the bulwarks every evening.
