He was full of jokes and witty sayings; he seemed to be in his element now, and all his powers of body and mind were in the keenest state of excitement.
The students were disposed to look upon it as a rough time, and doubtless some of them thought the ship was in great peril.

Not a few of them pretended to enjoy the scene, and talked amazingly salt, as though they had been used to this kind of thing all their lives.

Mr.Lowington came on deck, when all hands were called; and though, to his experienced eye, there was no danger while the ship was well managed, he was exceedingly anxious, for it was a time when accidents were prone to happen, and the loss of a boy at such an hour, would endanger the success of his great experiment.

On deck, the students could not get overboard without the grossest carelessness; but it was perilous to send them aloft in the gloom of the howling tempest.

He had hoped that he might be permitted to meet the onslaught of the first gale the ship encountered in the daytime; but as the "clerk of the weather" otherwise ordained it, he was compelled to make the best of the circumstances.
Before the manoeuvre of reefing, in the gale, was begun, Mr.Fluxion was sent forward.