Chapter 17

"The morning air blows fresh on him;
The waves dance gladly in his sight;
The sea-birds call, and wheel, and skim--
O, blessed morning light!"

Dana.

The very day succeeding the arrival of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, even
while his mate was clearing the vessel, Daggett had a gang on the north
shore, killing and skinning. As Roswell's rules were rigidly observed, no
other change was produced by this accession to the force of the sealers,
than additional slaughter. Many more seals were killed, certainly, but all
was done so quietly that no great alarm was awakened among the doomed
animals themselves. One great advantage was obtained by the arrival of the
new party that occasioned a good deal of mirth at first, but which, in the
end, was found to be of great importance to the progress of the work.
Daggett had taken to pieces and brought with him the running part of a
common country wagon, which was soon found of vast service in transporting
the skins and blubber across the rocks. The wheels were separated, leaving
them in pairs, and each axle was loaded with a freight that a dozen men
would hardly have carried, when two or three hands would drag in the load,
with an occasional lift from other gangs, to get them up a height, or over
a cleft. This portion of the operation was found to work admirably, owing,
in a great measure, to the smooth surfaces of the rocks; and
unquestionably these wheels advanced the business of the season at least a
fortnight;--Gardiner thought a month. It rendered the crews better
natured, too, much diminishing their toil, and sending them to their bunks
at night in a far better condition for rest than they otherwise could have
been.

Just one month, or four weeks to a day, after the second schooner got in,
it being Sunday of course, Gardiner and Daggett met on the platform of a
perfectly even rock that lay stretched for two hundred yards directly
beneath the house. It was in the early morning. Notwithstanding there was
a strong disposition to work night and day on the part of the new-comers,
Roswell's rule of keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest had prevailed, and
the business of washing, scrubbing and shaving, had just commenced. As for
the two masters, they required fewer ablutions than their men, had risen
earlier, and were already dressed for the day.

"To-morrow will be the first day of February," said Daggett, when the
salutations of the morning were passed, "and I was calculating my chances
of getting full this season. You will be full this week, I conclude,
Gar'ner?"

"We hope to be so, by the middle of it," was the answer. "I think the seal
are getting to be much shyer than they were, and am afraid we shall