favorable ones we thought about noon we would be able to get off, as the wind changed and water grew rough.
In vain we tried three times and had to give up. Slim had cemented a pontoon which had sprung a leak and is now soldering the cracked oil tank which the cement and adhesive tape didn't repair.
Just now Bill is playing on a strange instrument with Andy. They are trying to learn it from directions given. The fence is lined with listeners who are starved for music. The only music here is two "Gramophones"―this instrument, a "guitar harp"―and a piano. The fence is lined with men as soon as any music is started. Though the people crave it, they don't try to have any. How different from the expressive South! Here emotions are as unexpressed as nature is barren.
Friday. Is it possible we have been here so long? I didn't get up very early ce matin as I depended upon being waked. The thing which did get me up was the strain of "Jingle Bells" played by Wilmer Stultz on the strange instrument described before. Just now Slim is asleep.
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