The equator is crossed, and now how we check off the degrees of latitude, day by day, as we run them up in the north-east trades, for we are on the home side of the line! Our rigging is all fitted and tarred down, and a coat of paint from the mastheads down to the water-line, inside and out, works a wonderful change in the appearance of our noble ship. How eagerly we hail the first patches of gulf-weed! and as we plough through immense quantities of it, day after day, and haul great snarls of it in on deck. wonder what is the use of it, and what becomes of it all, finally?
We pass Bermuda without the usual heavy squalls characteristic of that locality, but off Hatteras we lie to a couple of days, and ride out a "clear nor'wester," which seems to blow out of the sun and stars, rather than the clouds. Block Island is our first landfall; and, leaving this on our port bow, we shape our course for the Vineyard Sound. It is nearly night when we see a pilot-boat coming for us, and every heart leaps with joy at the thought of soon being at anchor in a home port. Merrily we rouse up the chain cables from their rusty lockers, and tumble the anchors off the bow; our maintopsail is thrown aback, and the pilot-boat shoots up within hail.
"What ship is this?" he asks.
"The Arethusa, of Nantucket."
"O yes! how d'ye do, Captain Upton? You look deep," says the pilot.
"Full ship," replies the old man, rather proudly. "What's sperm oil worth?"
"'Bout eighty-five cents. Haint you got a piece of salt pork to spare, captain?"
"Yes, half a dozen," answers the captain, who, knowing the ropes, has it all prepared beforehand. "Here, pass this meat into the boat."
"Now, haint you got a few fathoms of second-hand towline that you can spare as well as not? You see my peak-halyards, they're about worn out."
"Here it is, waiting for you," says the old man, with a laugh. "It's the most remarkable thing, that a Sound pilot-boat's peak-halyards always are about worn out! Here, pass this coil of line into the boat. I suppose you can get us into Oldtown to-night, can't you pilot?"