!# HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



interest centered in that meal ; everything passed off well 

 till the pudding appeared. 



" By Jove ! boys, it looks first-rate. I always thought he 

 was not such a darned fool as he looks, although I never 

 saw a man yet that squinted who was not either a knave 

 or a fool," exclaimed the skipper. 



"You bet I took very good care of that before I took 

 him/' remarked the master. 



But when the deceptive pudding was cut, the revulsion 

 of feeling was terrible, for not a vestige of apple could be 

 seen ; in fact, it was a suet pudding pure and simple. 

 " The beggar has eaten the apples," said Snow. 

 " He daren't," answered the mate, with a significant 

 glance at his sea-boots. 



"Well, then, where are they?" rejoined Snow. "He 

 cannot have forgotten them. Look for yourselves ; I have 

 given it up." 



This led to a more minute examination, which disclosed 

 the fact that the idiot had mixed both dough and apples 

 into one solid mass before submitting the concrete to the 

 pan. The mate was much disgusted, the rest of us highly 

 diverted. The delinquent was summoned, and stood trem- 

 bling before the wreck of his handiwork, his weather eye 

 rolled towards the companion ladder. After a good rowing 

 for his conceit and for spoiling our dinner, the punishment 

 decreed was that he should eat it. But this was too much. 

 Lickings he might be accustomed to, but to swallow a 

 " foreign devil's " pudding was too awful, and with a yell of 

 terror he sprang like a monkey up the ladder, materially 

 assisted by one of Baker's sea-boots in case he might slip. 

 Oki, our boatswain, who had acquired certain expletives, 

 which gave to his mangled pidgin English a warmth of tone 

 and colouring which would otherwise have been wanting, 

 gave a graphic account of the cook's sudden appearance 

 through the scuttle. 



" I makee lookee topside deck, speakee wheelman, makee 

 look see cookee, all same fly. Cabin plenty bobbery. Son 



