kept off self-pity, and kept the
machinery of the mind at work. They lifted me, as it were, to an upper
floor removed from the treacherously sighing Priscilla. But I came down
quickly with a crash; no dexterous management of my mental resources
could save me from the hemp-like smell of the ship, nor would leaning
over the taffrail, nor lying curled under a tarpaulin. The sailors
heaped pilot-coats upon us. It was a bad ship, they said, to be sick on
board of, for no such thing as brandy was allowed in the old
Priscilla. Still I am sure I tasted some before I fell into a state
of semi-insensibility. As in a trance I heard Temple's moans, and the
captain's voice across the gusty wind, and the forlorn crunching of the
ship down great waves. The captain's figure was sometimes stooping
over us, more great-coats were piled on us; sometimes the wind whistled
thinner than one fancies the shrieks of creatures dead of starvation and
restless, that spend their souls in a shriek as long as they can hold
it on, say nursery-maids; the ship made a truce with the waters and
grunted; we took two or three playful blows, we were drenched with
spray, uphill we laboured, we caught the moon in a net of rigging,
away we plunged; we mounted to plunge again and again. I reproached the
vessel in argument for some imaginary inconsistency. Memory was like a
heavy barrel on my breast, rolling with the sea.

CHAPTER XIII. WE CONDUCT SEVERAL LEARNED ARGUMENTS WITH THE CAPTAIN OF THE PRISCILLA

Captain Welsh soon conquered us. The latest meal we had eaten was on
the frosty common under the fir-trees. After a tremendous fast,
with sea-sickness supervening, the eggs and bacon, and pleasant
benevolent-smelling tea on the captain's table were things not to be
resisted by two healthy boys who had previously stripped and faced
buckets of maddening ice-cold salt-water, dashed at us by a jolly
sailor. An open mind for new impressions came with the warmth of our
clothes. We ate, bearing within us the souls of injured innocents;
nevertheless, we were thankful, and, to the captain's grace, a long one,
we bowed heads decently. It was a glorious breakfast, for which land and
sea had prepared us in about equal degrees: I confess, my feelings when
I jumped out of the cabin were almost those of one born afresh to life
and understanding. Temple and I took counsel. We agreed that sulking
would be ridiculous, unmanly, ungentlemanly. The captain had us fast,
as if