The wind
sighed over us amongst the wet shrouds, with a note so mournful,
that there could not have been a more appropriate dirge.
"'The ship pitching violently, strained and cracked from end to end;
so that, what with the noise of the sea, the rattling of the ropes,
and the whistling of the wind, hardly one word of the service could
be distinguished. The men, however, understood by a motion of the
captain's hand, when the time came, and the body of our dear little
brother was committed to the deep.
"'So violent a squall was sweeping past the ship at this moment that
no sound was heard of the usual splash, which made the sailors
(naturally superstitious) allege, that their young favorite never
touched the water at all, but was at once carried off in the gale to
his final resting-place!'"
GEORGE. "Oh! how very melancholy. It seems much more dismal to be
buried in the sea than on the land:
"'For the dead should lie in the churchyard green,
Where the pleasant flowers do spring.'"
EMMA. "I shall be grateful to Captain Hall if his pathetic
description of the funeral of 'Dolly' checks your desire to become a
sailor, George; for I cannot bear to think of it. We are now to sail
along the coast of South America, and the first gulfs in the north
of this coast are the gulfs of Maracaybo, Coro, Trieste, and Paria,
by the island of Trinidad, where----"
CHARLES. "Stop! stop! Emma. Out of four gulfs there must be
something to be had worth fishing for, is there not?"
MR.
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