s of
the tackle.

"And run away with it," he said. "And when I say run I don't mean walk,
either."

The sailors already had hold of the ropes, and they grinned when Captain
Sol said that.

"Aye, aye, sir," they shouted.

And he ordered the other two men at the fore hatch and the other two men
at the after hatch to be ready to handle and loose the bales and to be
lively about it.

"All ready!" he called to the mates.

Then the fun began. The bales and the barrels and the boxes seemed to
fly out of the hatchways and to alight on the deck like a flock of great
birds. And the men who had to handle them and to cast off the hooks did
it in the liveliest way that can be imagined, and they hustled the boxes
and the barrels and the bales to one side so that there should be room
for the next thing that came up. And there was a great noise of a lively
chanty, that the sailors sang all the time, without stopping. It wasn't
worth while to stop; for then, as soon as they had stopped singing, they
would have to begin again, so they kept on all the time. And there was
the soft noise of their bare feet stamping on the deck but they didn't
stamp very hard because that would hurt their feet.

Pretty soon the bodies and the faces of the sailors began to glisten;
and, before long, the sweat was running down in streams. For, working
there, at that island, was just about the same as it would have been if
they had been working at Charleston or Savannah in May. It was pretty
hot for such hard work. But the sailors were merry at it, and grinned
and shouted their chanty, and they kept at it until all the things were
out on the deck of the _Industry_ that had to be taken out. The things
that were the heaviest they didn't take out, but just moved them to one
side and left them in the hold.

By dinner time, they had all the cargo taken out that had to be taken
out, and the heaviest freshly stowed in the middle of the ship at the
very bottom. Then Captain Sol told the mates and the sailors to come up.

"There!" said he. "I'll bet dollars to buttons there never was a ship
unloaded any quicker than we've unloaded this one. Now go to your
dinner, and we'll finish this stowing this afternoon."

And he told the mate to serve out to the sailors a little rum. They had
been working very hard and they would have a lot more hard work to do
before the day was done. It was the custom, in those days, to serve out
rum to the crew now and then; perhaps