is why I did ship. I was in tiptop shape when I sailed. All this come
out on me afterward. You remember seem' me aloft, an' up to my neck in
water. And I trimmed coal below, too. A sick man couldn't do it. And
remember, sir, you'll have to testify to how I did my duty at the
beginning before I took down."

"I'll bet with you myself if you think I'm goin' to die," he called after
me.

Already the sailors show marks of the hardship they are enduring. It is
surprising, in so short a time, how lean their faces have grown, how
lined and seamed. They must dry their underclothing with their body
heat. Their outer garments, under their oilskins, are soggy. And yet,
paradoxically, despite their lean, drawn faces, they have grown very
stout. Their walk is a waddle, and they bulge with seaming corpulency.
This is due to the amount of clothing they have on. I noticed Larry, to-
day, had on two vests, two coats, and an overcoat, with his oilskin
outside of that. They are elephantine in their gait for, in addition to
everything else, they have wrapped their feet, outside their sea-boots,
with gunny sacking.

It _is_ cold, although the deck thermometer stood at thirty-three to-day
at noon. I had Wada weigh the clothing I wear on deck. Omitting
oilskins and boots, it came to eighteen pounds. And yet I am not any too
warm in all this gear when the wind is blowing. How sailors, after
having once experienced the Horn, can ever sign on again for a voyage
around is beyond me. It but serves to show how stupid they must be.

I feel sorry for Henry, the training-ship boy. He is more my own kind,
and some day he will make a henchman of the afterguard and a mate like
Mr. Pike. In the meantime, along with Buckwheat, the other boy who
berths in the 'midship-house with him, he suffers the same hardship as
the men. He is very fair-skinned, and I noticed this afternoon, when he
was pulling on a brace, that the sleeves of his oil-skins, assisted by
the salt water, have chafed his wrists till they are raw and bleeding and
breaking out in sea-boils. Mr. Mellaire tells me that in another week
there will be a plague of these boils with all hands for'ard.

"When do you think we'll be up with the Horn again?" I innocently queried
of Mr. Pike.

He turned upon me in a rage, as if I had insulted him, and positively
snarled in my face ere he swung away without the courtesy of an answer.
It is evident that he takes the sea seriously.