eat liver."

The runner, sitting with a few guests at another table, served by the
proprietor's daughter, gazed at us with fixed vision, not even having
taken up his knife and fork, for that pale, scientific interest which
absorbed him.

"I know that squar's are fash'nable," said the captain, taking up the
napkin by his plate on the point of his knife and giving it an airy
toss into the middle of the table; "but I'd ruther have the sea-room.
Is your mess all fillers to-day, or have ye got some wrappers?"

"Wrappers? Oh, certainly--doughnuts, mince pie, apple pie, an' rhubub
pie."

"Sartin, sartin; fetch 'em along. I'll try a double decker o'
rhubub--I'm ruther partial to 'er. Fetch 'em all in: all'as survey yer
country, ye know, afore ye lays yer turnpike. F'r all these favors, O
Lord, make us duly thankful. Touch-and-go is a good pilot," mumbled
the captain in a religious monotone, and began.

From this time on our table fairly scintillated with mirth and good
cheer, in the midst of which, his first hunger appeased, the captain's
resonant tones were frequently heard pealing through the dining-room,
singing, as if particularly, it seemed, to the edification of the pale
runner, that "His days were as the grass, or as the morning flower."

I observed how Mrs. Kobbe and Miss Pray now and then warily conveyed a
"doughnut" from the table to their pockets, with an air of dark
declension from the moral laws. Having filled their own receptacles,
they whispered me an entreaty to do the same, as we might be late with
the tide and hungry on our way home. I complied in this, as in every
case, gallantly; but in my very first essay was detected by the
proprietor with a large edible of this description half-way to my
trousers' pocket. He winked unconsciously and obligingly turned his
back. Captain Pharo, however, oblivious to sense of guilt, approved my
action in clear words: "Tuck in the cheese too, major," said he; "it'll
do for the mouse-trap."

I was equally unfortunate when, some time after, in settling for our
dinner I drew out first, instead of my purse, the very same fried cake
which had formerly betrayed me; and, to add to my discomfiture, Miss
Pray and Mrs. Kobbe, who had six of these stolen products each in their
capacious pockets, retired into a corner, innocently giggling.

But an unexpected formidable dilemma arose when Captain Pharo, braced
up to such a degree by his dinner and his pipe, declared that