"DON'T WANT TO BE WASHED."
[OFF CAPE HORN.]
BY FRANK H. CONVERSE.
A dilapidated pocket diary for 1860 lies on my writing-desk. There is a faint suggestiveness of bilge-water and tar and damp woollen shirts about it. The pencilled leaves are soaked and stained with salt-water. Only now and then do I find a legible word or sentence until I reach the middle of the book, where my eyes fall upon the following badly blotted record:
"Fri..., July 2.—Blowi.. grea. gun. ..om S.S.W. ..... close reef ........ iced up ..... overboard .... Mr. Burn. secon. mate ..... Wayland, .....ard bound."