THE COOK. 71 



devoted more time to the straightening out of 

 ois kink} locks than the veriest city dandy. 

 He was a full bred exquisite, and withal a very 

 Hercules in strength and agility. As a man he 

 jras respectable as a cook abominable. His bean 

 soup was an abortion his rice, a tasteless jelly, 

 and the duff that potent breeder of heart-burns, 

 indigestion, and dyspepsia, even in the iron bound 

 stomach of a sailor reached under his hands the 

 very acme of indigestibility. 



Happily it is one of the rules peculiar to tho 

 culinary department of a whaleship, that whoevei 

 will arrange a private meal for himself is allowed 

 space in the oven to cook it. So when matters 

 came to extremes, and even my sea-appetite rebel- 

 led at the unsavory morsels brought up in regular 

 course of cookery, I was used to prepare a dinner 

 or a supper for myself, which although not much 

 superior in point of artistic culinary arrangement, 

 was yet digestible. 



