Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/307

 ship, and no such word as ‘I can’t’ is to be used. You have shipped to work. Your time belongs to the owners, and therefore you are to find no fault. The work must be done, and if it is not done willingly, the sword must  see it done."

Taylor, the man who had been put in irons, was now set at liberty, and the crew ordered forward. The larboard watch went below, and the starboard watch gave a pull at the weather braces, but not with the merry song  as usual. In justice to the two mates, I will state that they took no part in the affair.

The 22d, Washington’s birthday, we celebrated with plenty of hard work, not enough being thought of the  day which gave our glorious and ever-to-be-remembered  commander-in-chief birth, to make it a holiday. The only alleviation of the injustice was a dish of fried salt  cod-fish for dinner, to which all hands did ample  justice.

February 29. Sunday. A fairer morning never dawned. After having scrubbed decks, we scrubbed ourselves. At ten o’clock all hands were called aft to prayers. The passengers and crew gathered around the capstan, when the captain made a few remarks, stating  the object of our meeting there on Sunday and how we  might obtain salvation, and urged us to read our Bibles  and other religious books. A chapter from the Bible was then read, and a hymn sung. Then followed a brief sermon, after which the services closed with prayer. Dinner hour soon arrived, when we had the pleasure of eating a plum duff with molasses, which we relished the  more keenly as we remembered we had a watch below