For there is an enormously rich brewer in the ship who said as much as ten days ago, that if the child was born on his birthday he would give it ten thousand dollars to start its little life with.

His birthday was Monday, the 9th of September.
If the ships all moved in the one direction--westward, I mean--the world would suffer a prodigious loss--in the matter of valuable time, through the dumping overboard on the Great Meridian of such multitudes of days by ships crews and passengers.

But fortunately the ships do not all sail west, half of them sail east.

So there is no real loss.

These latter pick up all the discarded days and add them to the world's stock again; and about as good as new, too; for of course the salt water preserves them..