From such reflections as these, I was aroused by the order from the officer, ``Forward there! rig the headpump!’’ I found that no time was allowed for daydreaming, but that we must ``turn to’’ at the first light.  Having called up the ``idlers,’’ namely, carpenter, cook, and steward, and rigged the pump, we began washing down the decks.  This operation, which is performed every morning at sea, takes nearly two hours; and I had hardly strength enough to get through it.  After we had finished, swabbed down decks, and coiled up the rigging, I sat on the spars, waiting for seven bells, which was the signal for breakfast.  The officer, seeing my lazy posture, ordered me to slush the mainmast, from the royal-mast-head down.  The vessel was then rolling a little, and I had taken no food for three days, so that I felt tempted to tell him that I had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that I must ``take the bull by the horns,’’ and that if I showed any sign of want of spirit or backwardness, I should be ruined at once.  So I took my bucket of grease and climbed up to the royal-mast-head.  Here the rocking of the vessel, which increases the higher you go from the foot of the mast, which is the fulcrum of the lever, and the smell of the grease, which offended my fastidious senses, upset my stomach again, and I was not a little rejoiced when I had finished my job and got upon the comparative terra firma of the deck.  In a few minutes seven bells were struck, the log hove, the watch called, and we went to breakfast.  Here I cannot but remember the advice of the cook, a simple-hearted African. ``Now,’’ says he, ``my lad, you are well cleaned out; you haven’t got a drop of your ’long-shore swash aboard of you.  You must begin on a new tack,—­ pitch all your sweetmeats overboard, and turn to upon good hearty salt beef and ship bread, and I’ll promise you, you’ll have your ribs well sheathed, and be as hearty as any of ’em, afore you are up to the Horn.’’ This would be good advice to give to passengers, when they set their hearts on the little niceties which they have laid in, in case of sea-sickness.

I cannot describe the change which half a pound of cold salt beef and a biscuit or two produced in me.  I was a new being.  Having a watch below until noon, so that I had some time to myself, I got a huge piece of strong, cold salt beef from the cook, and kept gnawing upon it until twelve o’clock.  When we went on deck, I felt somewhat like a man, and could begin to learn my sea duty with considerable spirit.  At about two o’clock, we heard the loud cry of ``Sail ho!’’ from aloft, and soon saw two sails to windward, going directly athwart our hawse.  This was the first time that I had seen a sail at sea.  I thought then, and have always since, that no sight exceeds it in interest, and few in beauty.  They passed to leeward of us, and out of hailing distance; but the captain could read the names on their sterns with the glass.  They were the ship Helen Mar, of New York, and the brig Mermaid, of Boston.  They were both steering westward, and were bound in for our ``dear native land.’’