b WILD SPORTS IX THE FAR WEST. 



fiddles and a horn, without a care for the future. As it 

 began to grow late, the not very tender lighterman's 

 conscience of our captain began to reproach him. The 

 Avind was fair, and he knew that the shi^^ was only 

 waiting for him ; so he collected his cargo, and we left 

 the merry sounds behind us. We had had some fun 

 at any rate, and that made the time seem shorter. 



At Yegesack, another village on the Weser, we re- 

 ceived three more passengers, also bound for our ship — 

 a man of about five or six and forty, his wife, some 

 seven or eight years younger, and their hopeful son, of 

 about eighteen. 



As it was a downright impossibility to squeeze in 

 three more passengers amongst us, Tarpaulin gave 

 them up his cabin, as he called it. It cost no little 

 trouble to get the two rather helpless old folks stowed 

 below. William, for that was hopeful's name, managed 

 it quicker, for his foot slipped, and doAvn he went, like 

 a flash of lightning, between his astonished parents, 

 crushing his mother's bonnet in his descent. Towards 

 evening our captain wanted some tar. It was stowed 

 under a scuttle in the floor of the cabin. The sailor, 

 who had taken rather too much on board at Bracke, 

 and thereupon had totally forgotten the principles of 

 equilibrium, tumbled to the foot of the cabin ladder, 

 and made the trio understand that it was necessary to 

 open the little hole in the floor, and that therefore they 

 must press themselves as close as possible against the 

 ship's sides. This was easier said than done, because a 

 narrow seat ran along the sides. The scuttle was at 

 last opened, the iron pot lifted out, and set with its 

 sharp edge on William's toes, causing him to draw back 



