HOMEWARD BOUND SOUTHWARD. 281 



lucky enough to secure a place on the first deck, for from the 

 confined air the hold was almost unbearable. Our eating 

 quarters were between the berths of the first deck, below the 

 main, the tables being narrow and swung by rods so as to 

 accommodate themselves to the motion of the steamer. We eat 

 standing up, once in a while lying down to it when the vessel 

 gave a lurch. Our fare was coff'ee and tea, in their season, 

 made from a musty base, steeped in water so decayed that it 

 hardly held together ; hard tack, which had seen its best days 

 and the traditional sailors' " salt hoss," which had seen its 

 worst. As for dessert, the exhilarating pie had we none, and 

 our ice cream we ate in a sort of Barmecide way, that is, in 

 our minds. But we could not expect to travel for one cent a 

 mile and partake of much edible richness. Then we had 

 many things in common with the nabobs in the upper cabins. 

 We saw the same grand sunsets which they saw, we oftener 

 looked on the day-god as he rolled above the eastern sea to 

 make its waves glitter with his light. We saw the same moon 

 round out and wane, rise out of the midnight waves and pale 

 in the morning sky. We mutually enjoyed the glitter of simi- 

 lar stars, and saw the same constellations move northward, 

 until the Southern Cross replaced the Ursa Major. We par- 

 took of the same likes and dislikes toward our fellow passen- 

 gers; grew hungry and satisfied our appetites as they, although 

 in a diff'erent way ; yawned and grew sleepy and went to bed. 

 While the first cabin sat around its marble topped card-table 

 and gambled its surplus gold away, the steerage spread a 

 blanket on the salivated deck and worked with the same 

 energy ; the changing dross giving forth the same fascinating 

 glitter whether from horny or plebeian palm. Still, through 

 all my optimistic views ran a flavor of sour grapes, and I 

 often envied the more favored passengers who could super- 

 ciliously come among us without having yelled at them : " Say^ 

 you ! go to your part of the ship ; you don't belong here ! " 

 18 



