'A TRAVELLER'S TALES' 



189 



of a chase was in its way a treat, if only the crowd 

 had not been quite so noisy. 



* I travelled in fair weather and I travelled in foul, 

 and while I greatly enjoyed the former I do not 

 think that you can have any idea of the vast un- 

 pleasantness of the latter. I am not referring now 

 to my constitution ; that was sound enough after 

 so many voyages, and I looked back now with scorn 

 to those first two days of misery when I emerged 

 from the mouth of the Thames. But when the 

 great winds of heaven are blowing, and when the 

 great billows of ocean are making a plaything of 

 the ship, then the ship, feeling bound, I suppose, to 

 take her change out of somebody, makes a plaything 

 of the rats and other loose objects stowed away 

 inside her. I wonder whether this is a ship's way 

 of feeling sick ; if so, I can only say that it is a 

 very unpleasant way. I tell you honestly that I 

 have spent a whole day and a night on board ship, 

 holding on with my teeth to one thing and with 

 my tail clasped tight round something else, and 

 even so I was so battered about that I could 

 hardly move when I crawled out at last to seek 

 for a little nourishment to support my exhausted 

 strength. 



* And then people talk of the charms of a seafaring 



