308 IIO^[E I ] 'A RD BO UNO. 



was at least clear, that if swans sing before tliey die, 

 alligators do so likewise : for the poor thing was dead 

 next morning. 



It was time, after this, to stow the pets warm between 

 decks, and as near the galley-fires as they conld be put. For 

 now, as we neared the "roaring forties," there fell on us a 

 gale from the north-west, and would not cease. 



The wind was, of course, right a-beani ; the sea soon ran 

 very higli. The Xeva, being a long screw, was lively enough, 

 and too lively ; for she soon showed a chronic inclination to 

 roll, and that suddenly, by fits and starts. The fiddles were 

 on the tables for nearly a week : but they did not prevent 

 more than one of us finding his dinner suddenly in his lap 

 instead of his stomach. However, no one was hurt, nor even 

 frightened : save two poor ladies not from Trinidad who 

 spent their doleful days and nights in screaming, telling their 

 beads, drinking weak brandy-and-water, and informing the 

 hunted stewardess that if they had known what horrors they 

 were about to endure, they would have gone to Europe in a 

 sailing vessel The foreigners who are usually, I know not 

 why, bad sailors soon vanished to their berths : so did the 

 ladies : even those who were not ill jammed themselves into 

 their berths, and lay there, for fear of falls and bruises ; while 

 the Englishmen, and a coloured man or two the coloured 

 men usually stand the sea well had the deck all to them- 



