156 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
drawl makes rather a pleasant change from the perpetual 
guttural Dork of which we have so much. 
' No beer for me/ he remarks, 1 not wot they makes in 
the Colonies anyway, — wouldn't take it as a prisint. . . . 
Why not ? and wot do I know ? Why, I Ve worked in a 
brewery, — in Caipe town for nigh on two months, so I orter 
know.' Here there was a pause, and you could hear the 
men sucking their short pipes and the breathing of 
the sleepers in the shelves. Charlie took the silence to 
mean interest, and continued his experiences. ' Went there 
from Sydney, in a barquantine — nice sort of a barquantine 
she was. There were only four 'ands and miself in the 
focsle — sundowners they were, too — new chums a trying to 
get back to their 'omes agin ! It was precious nearly never 
seeing 'ome, I can tell yer. We was pumping 'er out two 
'alves of every watch. Talk o' fecdin' and wermin ! Woi, 
I 've sailed in a few of the 'ome lines, and they are 'ungric 
enough, but this 'ere barquantine w'ere the very 'ungriest 
ship I ever did see. 'Ow no, not quite so 'ungry as this 'ere 
poor's-'ouse — 'ardly ! woi, the Bcrlecner ain't got enough 
food aboard 'er to feed a cockroach. Never sawr a ship 
before what couldn't crford to keep a few cockroaches. 
' Well, as I was sayin', the old man 'e drank — somethin' 
awful, and the mate 'e came aboard dizzy, and were blind 
the 'ole way acrost, so the old man and me did all the 
navergatin' — queer navergatin' it war, too. When we comes 
to Caipe Town, thinks I to miself, it's about time for you 
to leave 'ere, mi boy, so I leaves, and looks hout for another 
job. There was plenty o' work goin' and 'igh wages, but 
a bloomin' serciety was a-goin' round, prewentin' deserters 
