"Well, we are all right again. You know I was very much worried about forgetting to wind the chronometer. I have been master for fourteen years, and this is the first time that I have neglected to do it. I have heard from old-timers that it is considered a bad omen."
"I don't believe in any such superstitions," said I.
Here he called to the cook, who was throwing slop overboard from the galley: "Have you given Toby any water today?"
"Yessir," said the cook, and cursed a large black and white gull for eating more than his share of the scraps that were floating by. "Toby wants for nothing, sir. In fact, he has been getting out of the lazarette lately."
The Captain did not hear this last remark. He was watching the remains from the galley to see if there was any waste. Old sailors say they can tell how ships feed by the number of gulls who follow in her wake.
(Now follow some extracts from my diary, kept during a portion of this trip.)
For the last week we have been having fine weather. The cook and crew seem to be very friendly. I notice that during the dog-watch from six to eight they gather around the mainmast. There the cook has a barrel in which he freshens salt meat. In this watch he puts it to soak. This evening he must have been carried away with his subject, for he was talking loudly and very excitedly, exclaiming:
"That is it exactly, and here we are. What are we getting? Nothing. And to think that we are the slaves of the owners—"
Some one interrupted, I believe that it was the Russian-Finn, saying: "I'll bet they," meaning the owners of our ship, "don't have to eat this old salt horse three times a day."