SEA-WRACK 9 



not be a difBcult matter to dictate in advance a 

 satisfactory part in the average conversation at 

 the Captain's table. The subjects, almost with- 

 out exception, are capable of prediction, the 

 remarks and points of view may be anticipated. 



Occasionally a passenger detaches his mind 

 from the ship and its doings long enough to take 

 note of something happening beyond the rail — 

 some cosmic phenomenon which he indicates 

 with unerring finger as a beautiful sunset, fre- 

 quently reassuring himself of our recognition by 

 a careful enumeration of his conception of the 

 colors. Or a school of dolphins undulates 

 through two mediums, and is announced, in a 

 commendably Adam-like, but quite inaccurate 

 spirit, as porpoises or young whales. Mercury, 

 setting laggardly in the west, is gilded anew 

 by our informant as a lightship, or some phare 

 off Cape Imagination. We shall draw a veil 

 or go below, when an " average citizen " begins 

 to expound the stars and constellations. 



All this is only amusing, and with the limited 

 interest in the ship and the trip which the usual 

 passenger permits himself, he still derives an 

 amazing amount of pleasure from it all. It is a 

 wonderful child-hke joy, whether of convinc- 



