CORRUPTING A SHIP'S COMPANY 



— which crawled over my face at night until at last I 

 begged to be allowed to take my mattress on the cabin 

 table. Still, I preferred the cockroaches to the onions, 

 which is saying something. 



My captain was a most misanthropic man. He had 

 retired from the sea many years before, but having lost 

 his wife had bought this five-hundred-ton barque and 

 was running her as a distraction and to get interest 

 on his savings. Highly religious, his morose state 

 seemed to accentuate it. I was soon cured of men- 

 tioning sport. He asked me not to leave the novels 

 which I had in my possession about, as the steward's 

 morals were questionable, and the skipper had doubts 

 of him. But the climax was reached when I had to 

 turn musician to entertain my seafaring host. In my 

 early youth, I must explain, I had a very highly 

 finished flageolet given to me. I annoyed my family 

 then intensely by practising on it, but after a bit it 

 became less of a curse, because melodies with very few 

 false notes were drawn from it. By an extraordinary 

 coincidence, after never having touched that refined 

 pipe for years, I spied one of a very similar type in 

 a music shop before leaving Newcastle, N.S.W. In a 

 weak moment I bought it. I thought to myself it 

 would be a distraction to go to the fo'c'sle head and be 

 a bit of an Orpheus at six seven ; but my well-meant 

 amusement was interrupted one dark evening by the 

 stealthy tread of the captain. 



My chief repertoire consisted of airs from Les Cloches 

 de Corneville and La Mascotte, which were the vogue, 

 and always bring up haunting memories of salad days. 

 On the approach of the captain I had voluntarily 

 altered my melody to " The Lost Chord," followed by 

 " The Village Blacksmith," both of which I expected 

 he knew. He asked me to play them over again. It 



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