{"id":"01KG8AMHP5BDHFNM7RM0ZS6CTD","cid":"bafkreic54yci6yhub3a7stu3jswcnhx3fodlrf32gr4gi52zb2547jmrau","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4673,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4594,"text":"having put his bucket away, and returning to it again, and finding\r\nnothing but a little water, he accused the by-standers of stealing his\r\nprecious stones.\r\n\r\nThis suggests another story concerning him. The first time he was given\r\na piece of “duff” to eat, he was observed to pick out very carefully\r\nevery raisin, and throw it away, with a gesture indicative of the\r\nhighest disgust. It turned out that he had taken the raisins for bugs.\r\n\r\nIn our man-of-war, this semi-savage, wandering about the gun-deck in\r\nhis barbaric robe, seemed a being from some other sphere. His tastes\r\nwere our abominations: ours his. Our creed he rejected: his we. We\r\nthought him a loon: he fancied us fools. Had the case been reversed;\r\nhad we been Polynesians and he an American, our mutual opinion of each\r\nother would still have remained the same. A fact proving that neither\r\nwas wrong, but both right.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XXIX.\r\nTHE NIGHT-WATCHES.\r\n\r\n\r\nThough leaving the Cape behind us, the severe cold still continued, and\r\none of its worst consequences was the almost incurable drowsiness\r\ninduced thereby during the long night-watches. All along the decks,\r\nhuddled between the guns, stretched out on the carronade slides, and in\r\nevery accessible nook and corner, you would see the sailors wrapped in\r\ntheir monkey jackets, in a state of half-conscious torpidity, lying\r\nstill and freezing alive, without the power to rise and shake\r\nthemselves.\r\n\r\n“Up—up, you lazy dogs!” our good-natured Third Lieutenant, a Virginian,\r\nwould cry, rapping them with his speaking trumpet. “Get up, and stir\r\nabout.”\r\n\r\nBut in vain. They would rise for an instant, and as soon as his back\r\nwas turned, down they would drop, as if shot through the heart.\r\n\r\nOften I have lain thus when the fact, that if I laid much longer I\r\nwould actually freeze to death, would come over me with such\r\noverpowering force as to break the icy spell, and starting to my feet,\r\nI would endeavour to go through the combined manual and pedal exercise\r\nto restore the circulation. The first fling of my benumbed arm\r\ngenerally struck me in the face, instead of smiting my chest, its true\r\ndestination. But in these cases one’s muscles have their own way.\r\n\r\nIn exercising my other extremities, I was obliged to hold on to\r\nsomething, and leap with both feet; for my limbs seemed as destitute of\r\njoints as a pair of canvas pants spread to dry, and frozen stiff.\r\n\r\nWhen an order was given to haul the braces—which required the strength\r\nof the entire watch, some two hundred men—a spectator would have\r\nsupposed that all hands had received a stroke of the palsy. Roused from\r\ntheir state of enchantment, they came halting and limping across the\r\ndecks, falling against each other, and, for a few moments, almost\r\nunable to handle the ropes. The slightest exertion seemed intolerable;\r\nand frequently a body of eighty or a hundred men summoned to brace the\r\nmain-yard, would hang over the rope for several minutes, waiting for\r\nsome active fellow to pick it up and put it into their hands. Even\r\nthen, it was some time before they were able to do anything. They made\r\nall the motions usual in hauling a rope, but it was a long time before\r\nthe yard budged an inch. It was to no purpose that the officers swore\r\nat them, or sent the midshipmen among them to find out who those\r\n“_horse-marines_” and “_sogers_” were. The sailors were so enveloped in\r\nmonkey jackets, that in the dark night there was no telling one from\r\nthe other.\r\n\r\n“Here, _you_, sir!” cries little Mr. Pert eagerly catching hold of the\r\nskirts of an old sea-dog, and trying to turn him round, so as to peer\r\nunder his tarpaulin. “Who are _you_, sir? What’s your name?”\r\n\r\n“Find out, Milk-and-Water,” was the impertinent rejoinder.\r\n\r\n“Blast you! you old rascal; I’ll have you licked for that! Tell me his\r\nname, some of you!” turning round to the bystanders.\r\n\r\n“Gammon!” cries a voice at a distance.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHTQQRAP3YZ2NTWXT8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMH33Z9JDQ25H8KY4N3BF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5NH02X4YVR17D8BTD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.645Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.348Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}