114 COLLECTOR'S KAMBLES 



that we bake a loaf of bread, boil some rice, and have 

 a good supper. 



Shelley took charge of the bread, and I thought I 

 was equal to the rice. I had never cooked any before, 

 but supposed that any one however inexperienced could 

 cook such a simple thing as rice. I put a few handfuls 

 into a large iron pail, and, covering it with water, set it 

 on the fire to boil. In a little while the water seemed 

 to have evaporated, so I added more. I repeated this 

 several times, until the pail became quite full of rice as 

 soft and watery as pea soup. It did not appear just 

 like the boiled rice I had seen on our table at home, but 

 it smelled good, and was surely cooked enough ; so I 

 added some salt, gave it a good stirring with the wooden 

 ladle, and prepared a small pailful of condensed milk. 



We were both desperately hungry, and ate a great 

 deal of the rice and milk, but I noticed the more rice I 

 put into the milk, the more milk I seemed to have ; 

 and after repeatedly filling my cup with rice, and eating 

 therefrom till I was tired, I was surprised to see it still 

 more than half full of milk. This suggested the mira- 

 cle of the loaves and fishes, but without saying a word 

 each kept on eating, hoping some time to see the bot- 

 tom of his cup. At last Shelley stopped, put down his 

 cup of milk, and drawing a long breath said, " Well, 

 I am filled up, very well filled up, in fact, damn well 

 filled up, with slops. By George ! I wish I had my fill 

 of decent grub for once, to see how it would seem." 



