CRUISE OF LA BELLE MARGUERITE 



with its pointed ends appears to be but an am- 

 plification of the tender. 



Our boat or barge, as it was technically called, 

 was decked over and provided with a small 

 cock-pit astern, and an equally small cabin or 

 cuddy in the bow. It was schooner-rigged 

 with two masts, and, although the owners took 

 great pride in the white sails, and said the boat 

 could therefore sail the faster, I myself re- 

 gretted that the sails were not stained a pic- 

 turesque red, or pink, or brown, as were those 

 of many other barges in this region. Some of 

 these stains were wonderful bits of colour, 

 shading like a water-colour wash from dark 

 mahogany in one part of the sail, to a light 

 pinkish hue in another part. Others were more 

 uniform, but the effect was always pleasing 

 and suggestive of the colouring of the sails in 

 far less rugged and more smiling waters. 



In the cuddy of our boat was a tiny iron 

 stove, which, however, took up so much of the 

 little room that there was but space for one 

 man to lie out at length on that side, and here 

 my friend made his bed. On the other transom 

 Mathias and Martial by overlapping end to end 

 were able to sleep, and sleep they did there 



105 



