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A big wave crippled	the helmsman. The rum sprayed around and	blinded us.
Our	arms were so tired we could scarcely wield the axes.	We were	in	a pretty
serious plight.
The second mate and	I were the only sober ones left.	We started	throwing
the	casks overboard. We	were about to heave one over, but	it felt	so	heavy we
looked inside. There curled up inside the cask, we found an old Swedish sailor, so drunk he could not stand.
Toward evening the storm calmed and at night we had beautiful weather again. We pumped out the ship and found no leak. All the water was taken in from the hole in the deck. In the morning we rigged up three small masts, so instead of a brig, we had a three-masted ship. We were fortunate to find a fair wind, and in five weeks we arrived at New York's quarantine station.
As I could speak little English, and had lent nearly all my money to the sailors, I thought it best to go with the ship to Middleton, where the sailors were to be paid off, so I could get my money back. We got a steamboat to tow us past New York through Hellgate. It was beautiful between New York and Hellgate - many gardens and villas, and ships without end. When we got through there we sailed up Long Island Sound until we came to the mouth of the Connecticut River.
Here our work began in earnest. The wind was against us, and we had no sails with which to tack, so we had to pull the ship up beside the bank of the river and wade in water up to our necks. When we could not wade for trees or when the water was too deep, we had to warp up. This had to be done for thirty miles before we arrived at the town, and although it was very beautiful up the river, I was so exhausted I could not enjoy it.
However, I could not help noticing the immense quantities of fire-flies which flew among the trees and filled the whole woods with light.
When we arrived at the town the sailors went ashore and got their pay, but they got drunk right away so I could not get back the money they had borrowed. I went out in a field and stretched out under a tree.
It looked exactly like Denmark, with fenced fields, and the same kind of grain growing, but now I was far, far from the dear old home. I had no friends or even acquaintances and I felt so unhappy that - child as I was - I cried. When I had had my cry out I went back to town to find the other sailors.
They were about to start for New York in a steamboat, and as I had not yet got my money, I thought it best to go with them. I went back to the ship to get my clothes. I could not take everything at once, so first I carried my working clothes and then went back for my chest. But when I came back the steamboat had gone, taking part of my clothes with it!
There I stood and I just did not know a soul! It happened to be the 4th of July, the day of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, a day that is highly celebrated in America. In Middleton, on several vessels in the river they were shooting fireworks, dancing and making merry.
As I stood wondering how I could get something to eat, for I was very hungry, a man came and said he would give me a dollar to take him out to one of the vessels. Then I was glad and I got the boat belonging to the brig, took him out and got my dollar.
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