There were fifteen newspapers in the bundle, and for the next week we all took something of a vacation from our little world and enjoyed a view of the larger one. A multitude of topics were discussed both aft and forward, and had a good effect in stimulating our minds, and diverting our thoughts from their well-worn channels, in which they were moving with but a sluggish drift. The same evening that we boarded the bark, the north-east trades came in a squall, and started us again on our homeward course. They brought with them also a more bracing air, which had a great effect in restoring the elasticity of our spirits. On we sped, averaging two hundred miles a day until we reached lat. 26° N. in lon. 65° W., where the trades left us and the variable winds of the "horse latitudes" set in. The bark was now in fine order. She had been tarred down, painted inside and out, and her masts and yards were all scraped bright and had received good coats of oil and varnish. The yards we had scraped in Padang when the sails were unbent, but the masts were done on the passage. We all declared she looked as fine as a new fiddle. But there was still plenty of work to be done in the way of small jobs, and in keeping in order what was finished, though the main work being completed we all felt easier in mind and more pleased to see her move rapidly towards port. The sailors were very lively and every occasion was seized for a song at their work. CHAPTER XII. SAILORS' SONGS. "Odd's life! must one swear to the truth of a song."--_Matthew Pryor._ The songs of the sea offer a field for research, and one who could trace the origin and use of some of them would doubtless discover interesting, romantic histories. No information can be obtained from sailors themselves on this point. No one knows who their favorite "Reuben Ranzo" was, or whether "Johnny Boker" ever did what he is so often requested to "do," nor can any one say more concerning the virtues and vices of "Sally Brown" than is declared in song. Sailors' songs may be divided into two classes. First, are the sentimental songs sung in the forecastle, or on the deck in the leisure hours of the dog-watch, when the crew assemble around the fore-hatch to indulge in yarns and music. Dibdin's songs, which the orthodox sailor of the last half century was supposed to adhere to as closely as the Scotch Presbyterian to his Psalter, are falling into disuse, and the negro melodies and the popular shore songs of the day are now most frequently heard. The second class of songs is used at work, and they form so interesting a feature of life at sea, that a sketch of that life would be incomplete without some allusion to them. These working songs may be divided into three sets: