During all this time from Fayal up to getting on the Cape Verde grounds, we hardly started a sheet, and the men had a good deal of time to themselves. Most of them were occupied with scrimshawing. I finished my pie marker, but did not begin anything else. A boy on shipboard does not have nearly as much spare time as would naturally be supposed by people who do not know; none of the crew have, either, although the crew is much larger than necessary for working the ship, and they do not care much for appearances, or for doing things smartly or in shipshape fashion. A boy has none of the duties of the men, except pulling and hauling when the boats are away, but he is at the beck and call of all officers. I really do not know whether all the officers have that right, but that was the way it worked out, and I never questioned it. Then I had my studies, at which I was really working. What spare time I had I preferred to spend on deck, gazing at the sky and the sea, and what I could see in them, rather than working with my eyes in my hat. There was little to be seen in the air, but the sea sometimes seemed alive with porpoises, and one day I saw a dolphin swimming just below the surface of the water alongside the ship. As it passed, with no perceptible effort, under the seas, with the sun shining upon it, it showed beautiful colors, changing every instant from one delicate shade of blue or green to another, like dissolving views. Then there came another and another, and flying fish leaping from the water. Some of the flying fish came aboard, or went clear across the deck in their flight, and I tried to catch them in my cap as they passed. I did catch three. In about 14° N. latitude we ran into the doldrums, {141} which prevail over but two or three degrees at this point and at this season. We were more than a week in getting out of them. It did not rain so much as I had expected, although the clouds hardly broke, and heavy showers were likely at almost any time.