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Page 71
An unhappy, tattered, moping row of them sat along dolefully on the
gun-deck, like a parcel of crest-fallen buzzards, exiled from civilized
society.
"Cheer up, lads," said Israel, in a jovial tone, "homeward-bound, you
know. Give us a seat among ye, friends."
"Oh, sit on your head!" answered a sullen fellow in the corner.
"Come, come, no growling; we're homeward-bound. Whoop, my hearties!"
"Workhouse bound, you mean," grumbled another sorry chap, in a darned
shirt.
"Oh, boys, don't be down-hearted. Let's keep up our spirits. Sing us a
song, one of ye, and I'll give the chorus."
"Sing if ye like, but I'll plug my ears, for one," said still another
sulky varlet, with the toes out of his sea-boots, while all the rest
with one roar of misanthropy joined him.
But Israel, riot to be daunted, began:
"'Cease, rude Boreas, cease your growling!'"
"And you cease your squeaking, will ye?" cried a fellow in a banged
tarpaulin. "Did ye get a ball in the windpipe, that ye cough that way,
worse nor a broken-nosed old bellows? Have done with your groaning, it's
worse nor the death-rattle."
"Boys, is this the way you treat a watchmate" demanded Israel
reproachfully, "trying to cheer up his friends? Shame on ye, boys. Come,
let's be sociable. Spin us a yarn, one of ye. Meantime, rub my back for
me, another," and very confidently he leaned against his neighbor.
"Lean off me, will ye?" roared his friend, shoving him away.
"But who _is_ this ere singing, leaning, yarn-spinning chap? Who are ye?
Be you a waister, or be you not?"
So saying, one of this peevish, sottish band staggered close up to
Israel. But there was a deck above and a deck below, and the lantern
swung in the distance. It was too dim to see with critical exactness.
"No such singing chap belongs to our gang, that's flat," he dogmatically
exclaimed at last, after an ineffectual scrutiny. "Sail out of this!"
And with a shove once more, poor Israel was ejected.
Blackballed out of every club, he went disheartened on deck. So long,
while light screened him at least, as he contented himself with
promiscuously circulating, all was safe; it was the endeavor to
fraternize with any one set which was sure to endanger him. At last,
wearied out, he happened to find himself on the berth deck, where the
watch below were slumbering. Some hundred and fifty hammocks were on
that deck. Seeing one empty, he leaped in, thinking luck might yet some
way befriend him. Here, at last, the sultry confinement put him fast
asleep. He was wakened by a savage whiskerando of the other watch, who,
seizing him by his waistband, dragged him most indecorously out,
furiously denouncing him for a skulker.
Springing to his feet, Israel perceived from the crowd and tumult of the
berth deck, now all alive with men leaping into their hammocks, instead
of being full of sleepers quietly dosing therein, that the watches were
changed. Going above, he renewed in various quarters his offers of
intimacy with the fresh men there assembled; but was successively
repulsed as before. At length, just as day was breaking, an irascible
fellow whose stubborn opposition our adventurer had long in vain sought
to conciliate--this man suddenly perceiving, by the gray morning light,
that Israel had somehow an alien sort of general look, very savagely
pressed him for explicit information as to who he might be. The answers
increased his suspicion. Others began to surround the two. Presently,
quite a circle was formed. Sailors from distant parts of the ship drew
near. One, and then another, and another, declared that they, in their
quarters, too, had been molested by a vagabond claiming fraternity, and
seeking to palm himself off upon decent society. In vain Israel
protested. The truth, like the day, dawned clearer and clearer. More and
more closely he was scanned. At length the hour for having all hands on
deck arrived; when the other watch which Israel had first tried,
reascending to the deck, and hearing the matter in discussion, they
endorsed the charge of molestation and attempted imposture through the
night, on the part of some person unknown, but who, likely enough, was
the strange man now before them. In the end, the master-at-arms appeared
with his bamboo, who, summarily collaring poor Israel, led him as a
mysterious culprit to the officer of the deck, which gentleman having
heard the charge, examined him in great perplexity, and, saying that he
did not at all recognize that countenance, requested the junior officers
to contribute their scrutiny. But those officers were equally at fault.
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