THE SAILING-MASTER. 125 



And he is something of a philosopher, for he declares 

 that he will have all the comfort he can get when off 

 duty, while he does not seem to regard any sort of 

 exposure, and is quite careless of himself, when on 

 duty ; and besides, he appears to possess that highly 

 useful faculty of being able to do for himself any thing 

 that he may require to be done by others. He can 

 handle a marline-spike as well as a sextant, and can 

 play sailor, carpenter, blacksmith, cook, or gentleman 

 with equal facility. So much for the man • now for 

 his feast. 



A day or so ago I found lying on my cabin-table a 

 neat little missive which politely set forth, that " Mr. 

 McCormick presents the compliments of the officers' 

 mess to the Commander, and requests the honor of 

 his company to dinner in their cabin, on the 21st in- 

 stant, at six o'clock." And I have answered the sum- 

 mons, and have got back again into my own den 

 overwhelmed with astonishment at the skill of my 

 sailing-master in that art, the cultivation of which has 

 made Lucullus immortal and Soyer famous, and highly 

 gratified to see both officers and men so w r ell pleased. 

 The bill of fare, u with some original illustrations by 

 RaclclhTe," set forth a very tempting invitation to a 

 hungry man, and its provisions w r ere generally fulfilled. 

 There was a capital soup — jardiniere — nicely fla- 

 vored, a boiled salmon wrapped in the daintiest of 

 napkins, a roast haunch of venison weighing thirty 

 pounds, and a brace of roast eider-ducks, with currant- 

 jelly and apple-sauce, and a good variety of fresh veg- 

 etables ; and after this a huge plum-pudding, imported 

 from Boston, which came in with the flames of Otara 

 flickering all around its rotund lusciousness ; and then 

 there was mince-pie and blanc-mange and nuts and 



