s the word to pull easy, and let 'em head
on us. It was hard work to hold in, with every one of the boats giving
way, strong, the captains singing out bets, and cheering their
men,--singing out, 'Break your backs and bend your oars!' 'There she
blows!' and all that. But the old man kept muttering to us to take it
easy and let them head on us. We were soon the last boat, and then, as
if he'd given up the race, he gave the word to 'easy.'

"'Good-night, Capt. T----! we'll send your ship in to tow you off,' was
the last words they said to us.

"'There'll be something else to tow off,' says he. 'It's the race, who
shall see Palmer's Island first, that I'm bound to win.'

"He gave the boat a sheer in for the beach, to a little bight that made
up in the land,--across the mouth of which we had to pull, in going off.

"'D'ye see that rock on the beach, boys,' says he, 'in range of that
lone tree, on the point? Did any of you ever see that rock before? I
wish this bloody coast had a few more such rocks! That's a cow whale,
and this bight is her nursery, and she is up on the beach for her calf's
convenience. Now, then,'--as we opened the bight and got a fair sight of
it,--'give way, strong as you please,--and we'll head her off, before
she knows it.'

"We got her and got the calf, and when, next morning, the other ships
saw us cutting in, they didn't say much about that race; and 'Old T.'s
Nursery' was a byword on the coast as long as we staid there.

"There goes eight bells, and I rather think Mr. Brown will want me on
deck." We followed, for there was the prospect of seeing topsails
reefed,--the most glorious event of a landsman's sea-experiences. We had
begun the day with a dead calm, but toward night the wind had come out
of the eastward. Each plunge the ship gave was sharper, each shock
heavier. The topmasts were working, the lee-shrouds and backstays
straining out into endless curves. A deeper plunge than usual, a pause
for a second, as if everything in the world suddenly stood still, and a
great white giant seems to spring upon our weather-bow and to leap on
board. We hear the crash and feel the shock, and presently the water
comes pouring aft,--and Captain Cope calls out to reef
topsails,--double-reef fore and mizzen,--one reef in the main. The mates
are in the weather-rigging before the word is out of the captain's lips,
to take the earings of their respective topsails; and then follows the
rush of men up the shrou