xpression in his flashing coal-black eyes, that caused me to set him
down as being somewhat crack-brained. His name, I soon ascertained, was
Algernon Marcus Wilde, and he was among the first of the emigrants to
speak to me. He came to me, on the morning after I joined the ship,
with a complaint as to the quality and quantity of the food served out
to the occupants of the 'tween-decks; and I was as much struck by the
correctness of his speech, as by the excessive indignation which he
infused into his manner, when stating the nature of his alleged
grievance. I pointed out to him the fact that, whatever the quality of
the food might be, I was certainly not responsible for it, nor, in the
event of its proving to be unsuitable, could I remedy the matter away
out there in mid-ocean; but I promised to investigate the affair, and to
do what might be possible to remove the grievance, should I find such to
exist--of which I had my doubts after my brief but highly satisfactory
experience of the viands served up in the cabin.

I accordingly requested the steward to produce the dietary list which
formed the basis of the agreement between the owners and the emigrants;
and, upon going through it, was certainly unable to find any just cause
for complaint, so far as quantity was concerned. The question of
quality was of course a different matter; but here again, when, a day or
two later, I unexpectedly examined the food as it was being served out
at the galley, I was quite unable to discover any legitimate cause for
complaint. On the contrary, the food, although plain, was as good as it
was possible to obtain in those times aboard a ship that had been at sea
a hundred days; and it was excellently prepared. When I sent for Wilde,
and asked him to state specifically what he found wrong with the food
that I had just examined, all he could say was that it was not so good
or so varied in character as that which he had seen from time to time
carried aft for use in the cabin; and that in his opinion no distinction
whatever ought to be made in the treatment of persons occupying
different parts of the ship; also that he considered I ought to give
instructions for the emigrants to be fed henceforth from the stores
provided for cabin use; nor would he be satisfied, although I pointed
out that he was getting the food that the owners had undertaken to
provide him with in exchange for his passage money. Of course to
attempt to argue with so unr