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time in rubbing my bruises , but limped on deck again for another (peep . The moment my head was up the hatchway , the gunner ' s mate assailed me with ho ! youngster ! ' from the hammock netting , nettled at my tossing my hammock to him so unceremoniously . * stand bv vour salvapee ! ' ' and he threw it at me , so niously * stand by your salvagee ! and he threw it at me , so
, that it swung like a collar round rny neck , and again capsized me . The fates and he were determined I should not see the Isle of Wight , for I was compelled to stand there till he chose to receive it , which was not till no other was left to be stowed . ' Now I will , ' said I . ' Hallo ! youngster , manhandle that bucket and pass the water along !* Well , I did manhandle the bucket / &c . till that
portion of the washing was completed . Then I could— -no—* Down on the maindeck , youngster , and clap on the holy stone V for having no station assigned to me as others had , I was at every body ' s ordering . Now , reader , was not this provoking ? here was a trial of patience . At length , however , the decks were washed and swabbed , and I contrived to take a peep—this delay of the enjoyment had only increased my appetite , and I should relish it with a richer zest—and so I tried to seethe Isle of Wight , and
there it was . I saw nothing but battered , dingy whitewashed walls , or rather dingy sheets hanging from dirty walls , through the grim , grey morning ' s drizzle ; and here and there , upon the wall ' s edge , a little wretched habitation was squatted , shivering in the cold ; and I shivered , too , with disappointment , wet jacket , and cold feet . How barren , cheerless , and dismal , did every thing appear ! How entirely did the ugly reality obliterate all
my pretty pictures ! To indulge in these realities , I had ran away from home and exposed myself to bruises , and bitterness , and peril . I was of so sanguine a temperament , that when my thoughts turned to distant scenes and foreign countries , I forgot all discomfort and distress , and revelled in delight . I had read of and reveried on other lands , till the hope of seeing them was the breath of my nostrils , the lamp of rny existence ; they made
the total for which I wished to live ; my being ' s aim and end was to see . The desire to know , when I had seen , is an engrafted stem on that deeply rooted and gnarledly grown tree . I have often questioned whether this thirst for wandering be a fortunate or an unhappy propensity in me ; it cannot be outgrown , —it cannot be checked , I fear . Indulgence in it has constantly increased the desire ; and even now I am fevered in the wish that I may not
die , till I have retraced my hundred thousand leagues again in body , as it is my office now to retrace them with the limbs of my mind , and that I may yet wander over thousands and thousands more , which I have seen only in maps or in imagination . Hence , reader , you may comprehend how dolefully dismal was rny first physical sketch of the Isle of Wight ; especially as I have told you rny fancied one had been so beautiful . Matters mended , however , as we approached St . Helen ' s and Smthcad ; for there ,
Untitled Article
36 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/26/
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