"Landed am I? I thought I was _shipped_."
"Very good, indeed--very good, miss; you'll make an excellent sailor, I see."
"I should make a better sailor's _wife_, I expect, Captain H---."
"Excellent! Allow me to hand you aft; you'll excuse me.--Forward now, my men; heave away!"
"Avast heaving. Up there, and loose the topsails; stretch along the topsail-sheets.--Upon my soul, half these children will be killed.-- Whose child are you?"
"Go and find out, that's a dear.--Let fall; sheet home; belay starboard sheet; clap on the larboard; belay all that.--Now, then, Mr Fisher."
"`For she's in love with the nigger tailor.'"
"Heave away, my men; heave, and in sight. Hurrah! my lads."
"Heave and fall--jib-halyards--hoist away."
"The clumsy brute has half-killed the girl!--Don't cry, my dear."
"Pick up the child, Tom, and shove it out of the way."
"Oh, any where just now; put her on the turkey-coop."
"I say, clap on, some of you _he_ chaps, or else get out of the way."
Thus, with the trifling matter of maiming half-a-dozen children, upsetting two or three women, smashing the lids of a few trunks, and crushing some band-boxes as flat as a muffin, the good ship Quebec was at last fairly under weigh, and standing out for St Helen's.
3 p.m.--Off St Helen's; ship steady; little wind; water smooth; passengers sure they won't be sick.
3:20.--Apologies from the captain for a cold dinner on this day.
4 o'clock.--Dinner over; every body pulls out a number of "Pickwick;" every body talks and reads Pickwick; weather getting up squally; passengers not quite so sure they won't be seasick.
Who can tell what the morrow may bring forth? It brought forth a heavy sea, and the passengers were quite sure that they were seasick. Only six out of thirty-eight made their appearance at the breakfast-table; and, for many days afterwards, there were Pickwicks in plenty strewed all over the cabin, but passengers were very scarce.
But we had more than sea-sickness to contend with--the influenza broke out and raged. Does not this prove that it is contagious, and not dependant on the atmosphere? It was hard, after having sniffled with it for six weeks on shore, that I should have another month of it on board. But who can control destiny? The ship was like a hospital; an elderly woman was the first victim--then a boy of twelve years of age. Fortunately, there were no more deaths.