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Updated: June 16, 2025
It was the Knitting Swede who drugged the skipper of the Sequoia, and shipped him in his own foc'sle. It was the Knitting Swede who sent the crowd of cowboys to sea in the Enterprise. It was the Knitting Swede who was the infamous hero of quite half the dog-watch yarns. It was the Knitting Swede who was oh, the very devil! And it was on this very account I was bound for the Swede's house.
You hear sailors' talk, learn their ways, their peculiarities of feeling as well as speaking and acting; and, moreover, pick up a great deal of curious and useful information in seamanship, ship's customs, foreign countries, &c., from their long yarns and equally long disputes.
We've been on the go from daylight and I'm too tired to write up the day's work." "A yarn, Doctor. I'm no hand at yarns," said the master of the spick-and-span little cottage at which I and my dogs had brought up for the night.
"Well, then, brother, go ahead, an' spin us your yarn." "I have no one yarn to spin," replied Jim, "for a narrative of my adventures in the desert would consist of a thousand yarns, each giving a description of some severe suffering or disappointment.
There was about him a certain air of elegance which yet had somehow the subtle effect of having been reflected. "Will Low's valet," explained the Post Mistress. "Sometimes it seems to be a dream, all this. These men who sat around my big blazing stove spinning cyclone yarns while they waited for the brakeman to fling in the mailbag, sending their valets for their mail!
And Paddy made a splendid nurse and cheerfully sat up at night in turn, and, as the patient began to mend, his bright talk and Irish yarns made him laugh and forget all the hardship and failures of the past. But most of all the invalid liked to have Dick with him. "You must take warning by me, lad, and stick to hard work. Don't try to get rich by taking short cuts that lead nowhere."
In a short time they were out at sea and, having plenty of work to do handing sails, reefing and steering, he almost forgot his great and deep heart-wound, and, although he could not be prevailed upon to sing a song or even to join in a chorus, yet he listened attentively to the yarns of the sailors, and always applauded their songs.
In the sewing department, a trunk, with suitable partitions, is provided, in which are placed, each in its proper place, white thread of all sizes, colored thread, yarns for mending, colored and black sewing-silks and twist, tapes and bobbins of all sizes, white and colored welting-cords, silk braids and cords, needles of all sizes, papers of pins, remnants of linen and colored cambric, a supply of all kinds of buttons used in the family, black and white hooks and eyes, a yard measure, and all the patterns used in cutting and fitting.
In the afternoon the men were usually occupied in drawing and knotting yarns, and in making points and gaskets; a never-failing resource where mere occupation is required, and which it was necessary to perform entirely on the lower deck, the yarns becoming so hard and brittle, when exposed on deck to the temperature of the atmosphere, as to be too stiff for working, and very easily broken.
Now, do not let me take up any more of your time. You have plenty of acquaintances that you wish to see, I have no doubt; and as for my yarns, they will do to pass away a watch, when we have nothing more attractive to divert us." So saying, he held out his hand, and shook mine most cordially. "To-morrow, at nine o'clock," he repeated; and I left him, much pleased with my interview.
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