ON CERTAIN HUMANITIES 295 



and strong enough if properly harnessed to drag 

 a dray of Herrick's safes. They was a great 

 nuisance on board. The cook he had bean soup 

 on Thursdays and the cockroaches got to know 

 the day and would line up on the beams of the 

 cabin when Thursdays came. The soup was in 

 a big tureen and had what the cook called floating 

 islands — hard tack. With the motion of the 

 ship, the soup and its islands would swa)' back 

 and forth and you could see them cockroaches 

 cranin' their necks and their eyes poppin' out 

 lookin' at it. Pretty soon they would begin 

 droppin' down on the islands where they would 

 sing in chorus 'A life on the ocean wave.' 



'T ate the lively ship's bread but I preferred 

 the biscuits the captain had on his table, and I 

 rigged up a hook, line and sinker, and many a 

 time I have fished up through the cabin lights one 

 of them biscuits. I tried to fish up a piece of 

 squash pie but it warn't no use. 



"One day the cook had biled up a mess of fine 

 potatoes for the captain's table and I wanted 

 some of it bad. The cook he had to help carry 

 the baskets of food to the captain's cabin, and. 



