Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
While it was out, the berths and bed-places were fumigated with a composition of gunpowder mixed with vinegar, and known familiarly by the name of devils; an operation which had been regularly gone through once a week during the winter.
The house consisted of one large room, as a dining-room, and the kitchen, with a floor of well-beaten clay, a smaller room, as a sitting-room, and three bed-rooms, all of which were floored; one of the largest of them fitted all round with bed-places against the walls, in the same way as on board of packets; this room was for the four boys, and had two spare bed-places in it.
At half past five in the evening the decks were cleared up, and at six we again beat to divisions, when the same examination of the men and of their berths and bed-places took place as in the morning; the people then went to their supper, and the officers to tea.
The severe weather which, until the last two or three days, we had experienced, had been the means of keeping in a solid state all the vapour which had accumulated and frozen upon the ship's sides on the lower deck. As long as it continued in this state, it did not prove a source of annoyance, especially as it had no communication with the bed-places.
The room was large and fairly lofty; the walls were clean and whitewashed; down both sides ran benches, six feet wide, similar to one he had seen in an English guard-house. There were some sixty men in the room; some of these were lying upon the bed-places smoking pipes, others were sitting on them talking together or mending their clothes, and several parties were engaged in card-playing.
In this respect the bed-places were particularly troublesome; the inner partition, or that next the ship's side, being almost invariably covered with more or less dampness or ice, according to the temperature of the deck during the preceding night.
The turtle cannot move when turned on its back, but as a further security it was tethered by the two fore paws to a stick stuck in the ground near the fire. As all the party were tired, they did not sit up late; but soon lay down in their respective bed-places, with a few boughs stuck in the ground to shelter their heads.
"Have you no light at hand?" said my companion, speaking for the first time in a very soft, yet clear voice. "No, I have not, but I will get some tinder, and make a fire with one of the faggots, and then you will be able to see." "Do so, then, my good lad," replied she. I thought her voice very pleasing. She examined the cabin and the bed-places, and then said, "Where do you sleep?"
"And now," said William, "I think we had better roll up the canvas of the tents; we have had a splendid day, and may not be so fortunate to-morrow." "Very true; we will get them housed, and stow them away under the bed-places; there is plenty of room." By the time that they had folded up the canvas, and William had brought in Nanny and the kids, the sun had set, and they went into the house.
Then the wind set up a howling, And the poodle-dog a yowling, And the cocks began a crowing, And the old cow raised a lowing, As she heard the tempest blowing; And fowls and geese did cackle, And the cordage and the tackle Began to shriek and crackle; And the spray dashed o'er the funnels, And down the deck in runnels; And the rushing water soaks all, From the seamen in the fo'ksal To the stokers, whose black faces Peer out of their bed-places; And the captain he was bawling, And the sailors pulling, hauling; And the quarter-deck tarpauling Was shivered in the squalling; And the passengers awaken, Most pitifully shaken; And the steward jumps up, and hastens For the necessary basins.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking