Every wave that she threw aside brought us nearer home, and every day's observation at noon showed a progress which, if it continued, would in less than five months, take us into Boston Bay. This is the pleasure of life at sea,--fine weather, day after day, without interruption,--fair wind, and a plenty of it,--and homeward bound. Every one was in good humor; things went right; and all was done with a will. At the dog watch, all hands came on deck, and stood round the weather side of the forecastle, or sat upon the windlass, and sung sea songs, and those ballads of pirates and highwaymen, which sailors delight in. Home, too, and what we should do when we got there, and when and how we should arrive, was no infrequent topic. Every night, after the kids and pots were put away, and we had lighted our pipes and cigars at the galley, and gathered about the windlass, the first question was,-- "Well, Tom, what was the latitude to-day?" "Why fourteen, north, and she has been going seven knots ever since." "Well, this will bring us up to the line in five days." "Yes, but these trades won't last twenty-four hours longer," says an old salt, pointing with the sharp of his hand to leeward,--"I know that by the look of the clouds." Then came all manner of calculations and conjectures as to the continuance of the wind, the weather under the line, the south-east trades, etc., and rough guesses as to the time the ship would be up with the Horn; and some, more venturous, gave her so many days to Boston light, and offered to bet that she would not exceed it. "You'd better wait till you get round Cape Horn," says an old croaker. "Yes," says another, "you may see Boston, but you've got to 'smell hell' before that good day." Rumors also of what had been said in the cabin, as usual, found their way forward. The steward had heard the captain say something about the straits of Magellan, and the man at the wheel fancied he had heard him tell the "passenger" that, if he found the wind ahead and the weather very bad off the Cape, he should stick her off for New Holland, and come home round the Cape of Good Hope.