No such small matter could affect the happiness of the
successful traders. Five days more the ship lay in the
lagoon, with little employment for any one but Tommy
and the captain, for Topelius's natives discharged
cargo and brought ballast. The time passed like a
pleasant dream; the adventurers sat up half the night
debating and praising their good fortune, or strayed by
day in the narrow isle gaping like Cockney tourists,
and on the first of the new year the CURRENCY LASS
weighed anchor for the second time and set sail for
'Frisco, attended by the same fine weather and good
luck. She crossed the doldrums with but small delay;
on a wind and in ballast of broken coral she outdid
expectations; and, what added to the happiness of the
ship's company, the small amount of work that fell on
them to do was now lessened by the presence of another
hand. This was the boatswain of the LESLIE. He
had been on bad terms with his own captain, had already
spent his wages in the saloons of Butaritari, had
wearied of the place, and while all his shipmates
coldly refused to set foot on board the CURRENCY
LASS, he had offered to work his passage to the coast.
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