Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

Echo ;

[ocr errors]

and we shall be obliged to breakfast upon burgoo, out of the ship's coppers. Nor is that all: the hawbuck has not rolled up a single hammock."

"How could I?" said the boy; "the gentlemen did not turn out before the bell rung for eight o'clock."

"You did not rouse them,” said the midshipman.

"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "I roused them a dozen times. I affronted Mr. Gale.

He had turned in all standing with his boots on; and he swore that if I named him again, he would jump down my throat.”

"No replies, sir," said Mr. Echo, "you are in a king's ship. Jump down for the tureen, and fill it with burgoo. I saw the doctor's mates go just now to the coppers: if you don't bear a hand, there will be none left for the officers."

66

Faith, sir," said the boy, "if that is the case, I must bear a fist indeed. Those doctor's mates eat more than any men in the ship. I saw Mr. Ipecachuana eat a pound of shark one day before dinner, just by way

of taking the sharp edge off his stomach. Here I go like a rigger!" And, so saying, he started on his errand, singing merrily as he went:

Love dwells on the lip of my Jenny,

She lives in the town of Kilkenny.

Notwithstanding the vivacity of this Irish lad, he was a poor, pale looking creature, and so lean in his person from the bad fare of the midshipman's table, that his clothes fitted him like a purser's shirt upon a handspike. When he had occasion to go through the bay on an errand, the seamen, sitting in their berths, were wont in wantonness to start up and secure their biscuit, exclaiming at the same time, "A hungry marine adrift! Look out, there, men, fore and aft for your bread bags!" In derision, too, of his gaunt figure they had christened him fat Jack of the bone house, all of which the poor fellow quietly pocketed, because his "position in society' taught him that resistance could effect nothing.

CHAPTER II.

Each to his colours true, with heart as stout,
As ever hauled a weather ear-ring out.

AUTHOR.

CAPTAIN BRILLIANT, having dressed himself, went upon the quarter-deck, where the first lieutenant was walking, in company with the doctor, the purser, the marine officer, and a midshipman. The midshipman, on perceiving the captain, immediately went to leeward.

"A fine morning, Mr. Hurricane," said the captain.

"Very fine, sir," answered the lieutenant. "Well, doctor," said the captain, "how do you carry on the war? Have you recovered your stomach ?"

66

Yes, sir," replied the doctor, "my organs of digestion are restored to their proper tone; and my stomach loathes no longer its diurnal food."

"Does the doctor eat his allowance, Mr. Nipcheese?" said the captain.

"Yes, sir," cried the purser, "he picked the plums for the gun-room pudding last banyan day, and ate more than half of what I had served out."

"When our pudding, sir,” exclaimed the

66

lieutenant, was put upon the table, the plums, I will vouch, were not within hail of each other."

"Ha! ha!" laughed the captain; " when the doctor again undertakes to pick the plums, you must make him whistle the whole time."

Mr. Echo, the midshipman, now approached the lieutenant, and bowing obsequiously, acquainted him that it was eight o'clock by the glass. "Very well, Mr. Echo," replied the lieutenant; "tell the boatswain's mate to pipe to breakfast."

The bell was now rung for eight o'clock; the glass was turned; the quarter-master and the man at the helm were relieved; the boatswain's mate piped to breakfast, and the air was impregnated with the fumes of burgoo.

The gun-room steward now came up the

companion-ladder to summon the officers to their morning repast; and the doctor, the purser, and the officer of marines, descended into the lower regions. In half an hour more, Mr. Tafferell, the second lieutenant, made his appearance on the quarter-deck; when Mr. Hurricane, together with the midshipman of the morning-watch, accompanied the captain into the cabin, where the breakfast was laid out.

"Mr. Hurricane," said the captain, "pray take the chair at the end of the table, and Gale, you come to an anchor here. Now, steward, off covers, and let us see our landfall."

It consisted of hot coffee, not very fragrant to the smell, and whole ship-biscuit, the elite of the purser's bread bag.

The yolk of an egg beaten up, and well diluted with warm water, supplied the place of milk, and for solid food there was a prime piece of cold junk, and the leg of a tough turkey flagrantly be-devilled to render it digestible.

The steward, a middle-aged man, stood

« FöregåendeFortsätt »