Some of the sailors had brought their chests with them; others had come with bundles of varied size; and others had nothing except the clothing in which they stood. To these last, the mate served out shirts, trousers, and jackets, from the slop-chest, and the garments thus obtained were charged to the account of the man who received them. You may be sure that the prices were high enough, as it was not the intention of the owners of the ship to lose money in any transactions with the crew. I suspected as much at the time; since I became mate and captain I have learned all about it. It was a dead calm all through the forenoon, and the pilot went anxiously about the ship, hoping, whistling, praying, and swearing, for a wind. He obtained what he wanted after a time, but whether his prayers or his oaths brought it, "deponent sayeth not." The wind came from the westward, and was favorable to our getting to sea. When the first puffs of the breeze ruffled the water, the anchor was lifted, and the sails were unfurled. Slowly the ship started from where she had been lying, and as the breeze increased her sails filled out, and in less than half an hour from the time the anchor left the muddy bed where it had rested for the night, we were going ahead at a fairly good speed. Just outside of Cape Cod the ship backed her sails and hove-to long enough to let the pilot and his men descend into a boat that came alongside. I confess to a momentary longing to jump into the boat and go ashore with them. My sea life thus far had not been what my fancy painted it, and I feared that the reality, as time went on, would be altogether unlike what I had seen in my dreams. I think, too, that David had the same thought in his mind; but both of us had the good sense to keep our thoughts to ourselves and make no attempt to go ashore. I remembered what Haines had told me the day before, and did not make any exposition of my ignorance of marine ways. When the pilot had been dropped we squared away, and were speedily plowing again through the water. When David and I signed articles we did not know where we were bound; we were going to sea, that was all. It did not occur to me to ask about our destination until we had left the dock and were directing our course towards the lower bay. Haines told me that we were bound on a voyage up the Mediterranean; we should go first to Gibraltar, from Gibraltar to Barcelona, and thence perhaps to Marseilles. As he phrased it, we were going to "Gibraltar and a market;" that is, Gibraltar was our first destination, and then we would go wherever our cargo could be sold and a return one bought to the best advantage.