Page 375

378

cotton or eider down for coverlids to our
boat bedding on the escape. [Should the ship fail to be
released] others take the needle and
sow canvas bags for the same journey
Brooks balls off twine in order to
lay up small stuff. Goodfellow sleeps
and the rest lounge.

At times when the sun comes
out very brightly Brooks or Wilson or both get
permission to go on deck. One of us [generally
myself] assists them; and by aid
of creeping and crawling the poor
cripples manage to sit upon the combings
of the hatch and look around in the
glorious daylight. The sight seldom fails
to affect them:– There are emotions among
rude, roughly nurtured men which vent
themselves in true poetry: Brooks has
about him sensibilities which shame me.

The afternoon [gave] to the cook
in a season of rest, a real lazy lounging
interval, [only] arrested by the call to
supper. The coming night watch obliges me to
to take an evening catnap. I state this
by way of implying that I never sleep
O'day times.

After supper we have a better
condition state of things than two weeks ago. THen the
few tired out workers were regaled by
the groans & tossings of the sick. There
was little conversation and the phisiognomy
of our smoke blackened little den
was truly dismal. Now daylight pours
in from the scuttle, the tea kettle sings
up on the stove, the convalescents raise
up upon their elbows and spin merry
yarns. We are not yet sufficiently jolly
for cards, but we are sufficently thankful
to do without them. At 9. silence