IN THE ALASKA-YUKON GAMELANDS 



dove back again I felt myself flung against the 

 opposite wall. It seemed my feet couldn't travel 

 fast enough to keep up with my body, the result 

 being that I was recklessly tossed hither and 

 thither until the crust of my anatomy and my 

 wearing apparel looked more like a shredded 

 laundry basket than a human shell and a coil of 

 clothes. It's a good thing my supper had already 

 digested. I was being juggled about the state- 

 room much like a fly in a cream separator when 

 the door opened and the Captain's smiling face 

 intruded: 



"Come down to the dining room and have a 

 little spread with me, and you'll feel better," he 

 said. "It's my birthday, and I'm asking several 

 of the passengers down." 



I threw myself out the door and tried to follow 

 him. It seemed really unnecessary for us to de- 

 scend the stairs to the dining room, as the floor 

 of that room came up to meet us as we started 

 down. As we all sat at the Captain's table he 

 said: "I hope all twenty-five of you will have a 

 pleasant trip, and that this assembly of twenty- 

 four will be much benefited by the voyage. I 

 look upon these twenty- two smiling faces as a 

 father upon his family, for I am responsible for 

 the safety of this group of seventeen. I hope all 

 fourteen of you will join me in drinking a toast to 

 a merry trip. I believe that we eight are most 

 congenial, and I applaud the judgment which 

 chose these three persons for my table. You and 



22 



