The sea presently under a brightened sky grew to a rare intensity of blue, that was at its most radiant in the overswirl of water sheered by the bows. Gallant enough the _Bonadventure_ looked in the marvellous expanse, having by dint of much early-morning swilling and swabbing thrown the worst of her nighted colour off; but almost every day I heard bad wishes to the designer of her, though on the score of utility, not the pleasure of the eye. My fancy of a full-rigged ship bowing over these rich seas was usually corrected with reference to "wind-bags"--not folks like me, but ships.
Then there came rain, drizzling on doggedly hour after hour. The drops hung on the railings like autumn dews on meadow fences. One of the effects of such weather was that the cat, who had been induced after all to make the trip, was driven to look about for a quiet, sheltered corner, and having found one, was driven to look again. Finally she chose the chart-room and settled upon the chart. South America was sodden with rain and black with paw-marks when the second mate looked in, and that cat, black or not, would have passed over, but for her being shortly to become a mother. That fact also accounted for her worried expression, voice, and manner, which I had misread as symptoms of sea-sickness.
And still the dull and rainy sky. When I went out one morning, the mate leaned over the bridge rail and said, "You're the blooming Jonah! Now look at that damn'd smoke." I looked at the customary coaly vapour flying aft, but was unenlightened. "You Jonah," he went on, "you've brought this wind, and it's carrying the cinders all over my new paint." Now, I suspected the cat was the cause of the trouble; but my guilt was urged by the chief also, as a current of a mile an hour was setting us back.
Not only the mariners of the _Bonadventure_ lived in suspense, awaiting the football results.
"Yes, you could see the excitement in his lamp."
"Why, about four the So-and-so passed us, and the mate on watch signalled us: 'Do you know the result of Tottenham v. Cardiff City?' So we sent back that Cardiff had won but we didn't know the score. This fellow sent back: 'Oh, well done, Cardiff!' but he was that excited, he could scarcely hit out a letter right. His first message had been--well, beautifully sent; now his lamp was all over the place."