lameness, from which I soon began to recover, I did no active
duty, except standing an occasional trick at the helm. It was in the forecastle
chiefly that I spent my time, in company with the Long Doctor, who was at great
pains to make himself agreeable. His books, though sadly torn and battered, were
an invaluable resource. I read them through again and again, including a learned
treatise on the yellow fever. In addition to these, he had an old file of Sydney
papers, and I soon became intimately acquainted with the localities of all the
advertising tradesmen there. In particular, the rhetorical flourishes of Stubbs,
the real-estate auctioneer, diverted me exceedingly, and I set him down as no
other than a pupil of Robins the Londoner.
    Aside from the pleasure of his society, my intimacy with Long Ghost was of
great service to me in other respects. His disgrace in the cabin only confirmed
the good-will of the democracy in the forecastle; and they not only treated him
in the most friendly manner, but looked up to him with the utmost deference,
besides laughing heartily at all his jokes. As his chosen associate, this
feeling for him extended to me, and gradually we came to be regarded in the
light of distinguished guests. At meal-times we were always first served, and
otherwise were treated with much respect.
    Among other devices to kill time, during the frequent calms, Long Ghost hit
upon the game of chess. With a jack-knife, we carved the pieces quite tastefully
out of bits of wood, and our board was the middle of a chest-lid, chalked into
squares, which, in playing, we straddled at either end. Having no other suitable
way of distinguishing the sets, I marked mine by tying round them little scarfs
of black silk, torn from an old neck-handkerchief. Putting them in mourning this
way, the doctor said, was quite appropriate, seeing that they had reason to feel
sad three games out of four. Of chess, the men never could make head nor tail;
indeed, their wonder rose to such a pitch, that they at last regarded the
mysterious movements of the game with something more than perplexity; and after
puzzling over them through several long engagements, they came to the conclusion
that we must be a couple of necromancers.
 

                                   Chapter X

               A Sea-Parlour Described, with Some of Its Tenants

I may as well give some idea of the place in which the doctor and I lived
together so sociably.
    Most persons know that a ship's forecastle embraces the