12 THE VOYAGE. 



can't help it nohow; thar ain't no other room.' 

 ' If I pay for both beds,' I replied, ' surely I can 

 have it all to myself?' This was at length 

 agreed to, the money paid, and at an early 

 hour I turned in, to enjoy a good sound sleep 

 ashore. 



Excepting two miserable, hard, curtainless beds, 

 an old rickety chest of drawers, and a couple of 

 chairs, the room was destitute of furniture ; but 

 spite of all discomfort, mosquitos, and other pests, 

 felt if not seen or heard, I fell fast asleep, soon 

 to be roused again by a loud knocking at my 

 door, the sound of numerous feet scuffling hur- 

 riedly up and down the passage, and a very Babel 

 of voices. Hardly awake, my ideas were in a 

 jumbled sort of chaos as to the cause. Fire, 

 burglars, riots, a house-fight, were all mixed in 

 strange confusion, until an angry voice, that 

 appeared to come through the speaker's nose, 

 yelled, rather than spoke, ' Say, ar you agwine 

 to open this door? Our women want them beds 

 for a lay-out, and jist mean to havin em. any- 

 how.' ' Ah ! ' thought I, ' they want the spare 

 bed I have paid for.' Of course I refused who 

 would not ? and, dragging the old chest of 

 drawers against the door, defied them to do 



< ' ' 



their worst. 



