When I grew restless again I took advantage
of a ship that was trading to Sardinia and Corsica; and very glad I
was to feel the fresh breeze and the sea-spray in my face once more.'
'But isn't it very hot and stuffy, down in the--hold, I think you call
it?' asked the Water Rat.
The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion go a wink. 'I'm an old
hand,' he remarked with much simplicity. 'The captain's cabin's good
enough for me.'
'It's a hard life, by all accounts,' murmured the Rat, sunk in deep
thought.
'For the crew it is,' replied the seafarer gravely, again with the
ghost of a wink.
'From Corsica,' he went on, 'I made use of a ship that was taking wine
to the mainland. We made Alassio in the evening, lay to, hauled up
our wine-casks, and hove them overboard, tied one to the other by a
long line. Then the crew took to the boats and rowed shorewards,
singing as they went, and drawing after them the long bobbing
procession of casks, like a mile of porpoises. On the sands they had
horses waiting, which dragged the casks up the steep street of the
little town with a fine rush and clatter and scramble.
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