Thus I Was Beaten At All Points; The Eatables Were Too Strong For Me, The Drinkables Too - Too - I Can Find No Appropriate Epithet - Probably Too Artificial.

I consoled myself with the prospect of dinner; but, alas, too soon this sweet vision faded into thin air!

On the sixth day I made my first appearance at the covered table, and could not help at once remarking the cloth which had been spread over it. At the commencement of our journey it might perhaps have been white; now it was most certainly no longer of that snowy hue. The continual pitching and rolling of the ship had caused each dish to set its peculiar stamp upon the cloth. A sort of wooden network was now laid upon it, in the interstices of which the plates and glasses were set, and thus secured from falling. But before placing it on the table, our worthy cabin-boy took each plate and glass separately, and polished it on a towel which hung near, and in colour certainly rather resembling the dingy floor of the cabin than the bight-hued rainbow. This could still have been endured, but the article in question really did duty AS A TOWEL in the morning, before extending its salutary influence over plates and glasses for the remainder of the day.

On making discoveries such as these, I would merely turn away my eyes, and try to think that perhaps MY GLASS and MY PLATE would be more delicately manipulated, or probably escape altogether; and then I would turn my whole attention to the expected dishes.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 48 of 329
Words from 12569 to 12834 of 87606