Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
the addition to our company.
In about six weeks from the time when the Pilgrim sailed, we had
all the hides which she left us cured and stowed away; and having
cleared up the ground and emptied the vats, and set everything in
order, had nothing more to do, until she should come down again,
but to supply ourselves with wood. Instead of going twice a week
for this purpose, we determined to give one whole week to getting
wood, and then we should have enough to last us half through the
summer. Accordingly we started off every morning, after an early
breakfast, with our hatchets in hand, and cut wood until the sun
was over the point,-- which was our mark for noon, as there was
not a watch on the beach,-- and then came back to dinner, and
after dinner started off again with our hand-cart and ropes, and
carted and ``backed'' it down until sunset. This we kept up for a
week, until we had collected several cords,-- enough to last us
for six or eight weeks,-- when we ``knocked off'' altogether, much
to my joy; for, though I liked straying in the woods, and cutting,
very well, yet the backing the wood for so great a distance, over
an uneven country, was, without exception, the hardest work I had
ever done. I usually had to kneel down, and contrive to heave the
load, which was well strapped together, upon my back, and then
rise up and start off with it, up the hills and down the vales,
sometimes through thickets,-- the rough points sticking into the
skin and tearing the clothes, so that, at the end of the week I
had hardly a whole shirt to my back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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