My First Cruise | Page 3

some one to send for me or to call me, so that it was
quite late in the day before I succeeded in getting into the shrouds. The
sun had now gone down, the sky was overcast, and the sea had a leaden
gloomy look--there was a swell also, and the ship rolled so much from
side to side, that, as I looked up and saw the mastheads forming arches
in the sky, I could not help fancying that I should be sent off when I got
up there like a stone from a sling, or an ancient catapult, right into the
water. The idea made me hold on very tight, let me tell you; yet, as it
would never do to give it up, on I went with my teeth pretty closely
clenched, and my eyes fixed on the top, which seemed to grow farther
and farther away from me, like Jack's bean-stalk. At last I got up just
under the top. There are two ways of getting on to it. One is by going
along some ropes, called the futtock shrouds, when one hangs very
much as a fly does crawling along the ceiling. I didn't like it, being up
there all alone in the gloom, for it was very different to climbing an
apple-tree or the oak-tree at the bottom of the lawn, with our nest on the
top of it, where you and I used to sit and smoke cane cigars, and fancy
ourselves Istelson and Collingwood. It wasn't pleasant going along the
futtock shrouds, and still less getting round them outside into the top,
for as the ship rolled it felt as if the mast was coming right down on the
top of me. I waited, however, holding on as a cat does to a bough when
you shake it, till the ship rolled over the other way, and then up I
sprang easily enough, and there I saw Dickey Snookes and Polly and
My Lord all standing by the side of the captain of the top, and grinning
from ear to ear, as if they had some very good joke in hand. At first I
thought that the captain of the top was a very important person, but I

soon found that he was only one of the seamen who is more active and
smarter than the rest, and takes command of those aloft. "Here comes
Midshipman Green," they all exclaimed, as they saw my head
appearing between the topmast shrouds. When I stood in the top they
all insisted on shaking hands with me, pinching my fingers terribly.
"And so you want to see our garden up here," said Snookes; "you're the
greenest thing we've got in it just now, let me tell you--ha! ha! ha!"
I didn't see anything to laugh at; but I laughed just to keep them
company, thinking the joke was over. However, before I knew what
they were about they caught hold of me, and while one blinded my eyes
with a handkerchief, I found myself lashed up to the rigging with my
arms and legs spread out just like the eagle on a Russian flag. Presently
all was silent. The ship kept rolling backwards and forwards as before,
and I began to feel somewhat queer in the region of my waistband and
right up to my throat, still I wouldn't cry out. Suddenly I found the
bandage whisked off my eyes, and then I could see only one top man
standing on the other side of the top, but my messmates had
disappeared. I called to the man. He touched his hat with the greatest
respect. I told him to cast me loose. "My orders were, sir, not to touch
you," he answered. I argued the point. "Well, sir, if as how you pays
your footing, I'll do it," he replied; "but, sir, you'll take care that I'm not
tied up and get two dozen for disobeying orders." I was ready to
promise anything, for it was very unpleasant rolling about up there in
the dark. After some hesitation and further talk, Tom Hansard, that was
the topman's name, cut off the lashings. I gave him five shillings, all the
money I had in my pocket. "You'll keep it secret, sir," said he. "You'll
say nothing against a poor fellow like me, sir; that you won't, I know." I
promised him, and he then helped me down through the lubber's hole,
for as to going down outside, I couldn't just then have done it to save
my life. When I got back to the berth, there were all my three
messmates seated round the table, taking their tea, and pretending to be
very much astonished at hearing all which had happened to me. Of
course, I said nothing