The merchant vessel : a sailor boy's voyages around the world . bout inhis berth, making grave calculations as to how many days waterwe had yet on board, and how long our bread could be madeto last, and had all arranged in his mind as to the course tobe steered for the nearest land, when we should abandon thevessel, a consummation which he appeared to regard as asettled fact. Indeed, so strongly had he persuaded himselfthat this would be our fate, that I thought it was with ashade of disappointment he at last witnessed the approach ofa breeze. With one exception, I was, I think, the most patie
The merchant vessel : a sailor boy's voyages around the world . bout inhis berth, making grave calculations as to how many days waterwe had yet on board, and how long our bread could be madeto last, and had all arranged in his mind as to the course tobe steered for the nearest land, when we should abandon thevessel, a consummation which he appeared to regard as asettled fact. Indeed, so strongly had he persuaded himselfthat this would be our fate, that I thought it was with ashade of disappointment he at last witnessed the approach ofa breeze. With one exception, I was, I think, the most patient indi-vidual in the forecastle. This was a quiet old tar, who hadserved an apprenticeship of two years to ejinui, on a sheepand cattle station in the wilds of New South Wales. He hadgot to be resigned to almost anything, and I am sure thatno calm could overset his equanimity of temper. As hehimself expressed, it was happy-go-lucky with him. Twoyears of the desperate loneliness and sameness of a hut-tenders life had so broken his spirit as to make him simply. OLD BILL THE CATTLE-TENDER. a listless looker-on in life. He no longer lives, he onlystays! said one of- our fellows of him one day. He was our quiet man, par excellence. For days he wouldsay nothing to any one, but wander up and down, in a half-dreamy state. Not only did he not talk himself, but heeluded all attempts on our part to talk to him, and whenaddressed, would look up with a surprised stare, as thoughjust awakened out of a dream. He lived in a world of hisown. When lying in bis berth, he would hold long conver-sations with himself, in which, from the little we couldoccasionally gather, many characters appeared upon the scenewhich his imagination had laid out, and not a few abstrusemetaphysical problems were discussed; for he was not bv anymeans an unintelligent man. He had read a g:ood deal dur-ing his long stay in the woods, and was evidently but nowdigesting portions. of his past reading. He was an excellent s
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