The Frolic rose and fell on the seas like a cork, and the
"Bruiser" took short unpremeditated little runs about the deck, which
aggravated him exceedingly. Between the runs he folded his arms on the
side, and languidly cursed the sea and all that belonged to it; and
finally, having lost all desire for food himself, went below and turned
in.
He stayed in his bunk the whole of the next day and night, awaking early
the following morning to the pleasant fact that the motion had ceased,
and that the sides and floor of the fo'c'sle were in the places where
people of regular habits would expect to find them. The other bunks were
empty, and, after a toilet hastened by a yearning for nourishment, he
ran up on deck.
Day had just broken, and he found to his surprise that the voyage was
over, and the schooner in a small harbour, lying alongside a stone quay.
A few unloaded trucks stood on a railway line which ran from the harbour
to the town clustered behind it, but there was no sign of work or life;
the good people of the place evidently being comfortably in their beds,
and in no hurry to quit them.
The "Bruiser," with a happy smile on his face, surveyed the scene,
sniffing with joy the smell of the land as it came fresh and sweet from
the hills at the back of the town.
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