THE VOYAGE 107 



received a cat, two pounds of fresh butter, a 

 Cumberland ham, Westward Ho ! and Thackeray's 

 English Humourists. I was astonished at receiving 

 two such fair books from the captain of a little 

 coasting screw. Our captain said he [the captain 

 of the screw] had plenty of money, five or six 

 hundred a year at least. " What in the world 

 makes him go rolling about in such a craft, then ? " 

 " Why, I fancy he 's reckless ; he 's desperate 

 in love with that girl I mentioned, and she won't 

 look at him." Our honest, fat, old captain says 

 this very grimly in his thick, broad voice. 



' My head won't stand much writing yet, so I 

 will run up and take a look at the blue night sky 

 off the coast of Portugal. 



' May 26. 



4 A nice lad of some two-and-twenty, A by 



name, goes out in a nondescript capacity as part 

 purser, part telegraph clerk, part generally useful 



person. A was a great comfort during the 



miseries [of the gale] ; for when with a dead head 

 wind and a heavy sea, plates, books, papers, 

 stomachs were being rolled about in sad confusion, 

 we generally managed to lie on our backs, and 

 grin, and try discordant staves of the Flowers of 

 the Forest and the Low-backed Car. We could sing 

 and laugh, when we could do nothing else ; though 

 A was ready to swear after each fit was past, 



