Dam' nigh a mutiny all for him--and now
the mate abused me like a pickpocket for forgetting to dab a lump of
grease on them planks. So I did, but you ought to have known better,
too, than to leave a nail sticking up--hey, Chips?"
"And you ought to have known better than to chuck all my tools overboard
for 'im, like a skeary greenhorn," retorted the morose carpenter.
"Well--he's gone after 'em now," he added in an unforgiving tone.--"On
the China Station, I remember once, the Admiral he says to me..." began
the sailmaker.
A week afterwards the _Narcissus_ entered the chops of the Channel.
Under white wings she skimmed low over the blue sea like a great tired
bird speeding to its nest. The clouds raced with her mastheads; they
rose astern enormous and white, soared to the zenith, flew past, and
falling down the wide curve of the sky, seemed to dash headlong into the
sea--the clouds swifter than the ship, more free, but without a home.
The coast to welcome her stepped out of space into the sunshine. The
lofty headlands trod masterfully into the sea; the wide bays smiled in
the light; the shadows of homeless clouds ran along the sunny plains,
leaped over valleys, without a check darted up the hills, rolled down
the slopes; and the sunshine pursued them with patches of running
brightness.
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