Rattlin, the Reefer, Volume 1

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Page 77 - Hymn. AWAKE, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily course of duty run ; Shake off dull sloth, and early rise To pay thy morning sacrifice. 2...
Page 108 - We drove our entertainers into the narrow creeks in shoals, and then with a net extended between us, we had the happiness of introducing them into the upper air. The sport was so good, that we were induced to continue it for some hours ; but whilst we were preparing for a multitudinous fry, the sun was actually all the while enjoying a most extensive broil. Our backs, and mine especially, became one continuous blister. Whilst in the water, and in the pursuit, I did not regard it — indeed, we were...
Page 60 - I was at that time heavy indeed with exceeding hopelessness. All I can say to the sneerer is, I wish, that at the next conclave of personages who may be assembled to discuss the destinies of nations, there may be as much of the milk of human kindness and right feelings among them as there was between me and the labouring sawyer, Joe Brandon, the one being at the top, and the other at the bottom of the wall. The next Sunday, Brandon was again on the wall with a prodigious plum-cake. A regular...
Page 136 - ... a fool and a tyrant, fools indeed must those officers be who draw the inference that I mean the impression to be general that all captains are either fools or tyrants. Let the cavillers understand that the tyranny and the folly are innate in the man, but that the service abhors and represses the one, and despises and often reforms the other. The service never made a good man bad or a bad one worse : on the contrary it has always improved the one and reformed the other.
Page 106 - Though renowned in parliament for his eloquence, at the palace for his patriotic loyalty, and in the city for his immense wealth, in the blessed circle, that he truly made social, there was a pleasing simplicity and joyousness of manner, that told, at once, the fascinated guest, that though he might earn honours and distinctions abroad, it was at home that he looked for happiness — and, uncommon as such things are in this repining world — there, I verily believe, he found it His was a happy lot...
Page 136 - ... the sunny dreams of our imagination ! Already my dirk had ceased to give me satisfaction in looking upon it, and my uniform, that two days before I thought so bewitching, I had, a few hours since, been informed was to be soiled by a foul anchor. How gladly that night my mind revelled among the woods and fields and waters of the romantic village that I had just left ! Then its friendly inhabitants came thronging upon the beautiful scene ; and pre-eminent among them stood my good schoolmistress,...
Page 186 - The devil a word will I ever utter on the matter,' said Farmer, 'and there's my hand upon it.' 'Nor I.' 'Nor I.' And every messmate shook him heartily by the hand, and by them the subject was dropped, and for ever. That evening Dr. Thompson made the captain's punch, having carefully locked up, in his largest sea-chest, his invaliding suit.
Page 116 - ... painful shriek and fainted. When we came into the room she was still in a state of insensibility, and, as we stood around, she slowly opened her eyes; but the moment that they became conscious of my presence, she leaped up with frantic joy, and strained me in her arms, and then, laying her head upon my shoulder, burst into a passion of tears. Mr. R. cast upon me a most triumphant smile : and, as he led me away from the agitated lady, she took a silent farewell of me, with a look of intense fondness,...
Page 195 - Indeed, sir," said I, with a great deal of humility, " I did not." " What — how? I thought when I came on deck I heard you singing out." " I was mast-headed, sir." " Mast-headed ! How — for what .'" At this question, revenge, with her insidious breath, came whispering her venom into my ear ; but a voice, to the warnings of which I have too seldom attended, seemed to reverberate in the recesses of my heart, and say,
Page 136 - My conscience smote me that I had behaved unkindly towards her. I now remembered a thousand little contrivances, all of which, in my exalted spirits, I had pertinaciously eluded, that she had put in practice in order to be for a few minutes alone with me. I now bitterly reproached myself for my perversity. What secrets might I not have heard ! And then my heart told me in a voice I could not doubt, that it was she who had hovered round my bed the whole night previous to my departure. My schoolfellows...

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