114 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



few articles of consumption. Salt beef, fish chowder, halibut 

 fins, potatoes, oatmeal, coffee, tea, and bread were the staple 

 articles of food and drink. We did not enjoy all these deli- 

 cacies at any one time, of course, for the cook varied them 

 with excellent judgment. The cook, too, had a fine and epi- 

 curean imagination, which helped us out not a little. For if, 

 like the Marchioness with her orange-peel and water, we all 

 made believe a good deal, and tried to live up to the cook's 

 romantic descriptions of his viands, we fared very sumptu- 

 ously indeed. As he ladled out the solitary viand or two upon 

 the tin plates which served as an omnium gatherum and 

 passed them to a waiter standing at the entrance to his little 

 cock-pit, his cheery voice would ring out : " Pass round 



the roast goose, 

 George; apple 

 sass, and a little 

 paddy de f oi grass, 

 turkey, or chicken 

 fricasee, if the 

 gents prefer it ! 

 Fill the glasses 

 with claret, then 

 pass round the 

 champagne — 1 i v e- 

 ly, George — live- 

 ly! "etc. While 

 to offset this ro- 

 mantic i s m the 

 realistic George 

 would shout in 

 stentorian tones : " One on the salt horse, without harness ! 

 One on halibut fin I" However, T noted comrades who were 

 epicures on shore picking at halibut fin with rare relish, for 

 there is no sauce like hunger ; and then, as the Marchioness 



THE GOOD SHIP RIGEL. 



