Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/264

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237

Twenty Years Before the Mast.

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urday. We ran a pole through the ox from end to end,
 and then placed the ends of this pole upon two forked
 tree-trunks which had been securely planted in the earth.
 A trench was dug under him in which a fire was built,
 and a windlass arranged with which to turn him at inter-

CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY.

vals, while a committee detailed from the crew dredged
 him with flour and basted him every hour.

At ten o’clock all hands were called to "splice the
 mainbrace." Not a man being sick, all indulged. After
 this the commodore ordered the starboard watch on the
 right and the larboard on the left, and then he produced
 a foot-ball, gave it a tremendous kick which sent it high