es properly after dinner. I tell you that I gave a big shout when I
saw the smoke curling out of the funnel. I now proceeded, very
deliberately, to select from the cans and bottles and jars, that were
piled up in the corner, the various items of which I would make my
dinner. The first thing that I settled upon was a dish of "_Parker's
ox-tail soup_," which I remembered to have eaten some time ago at the
house of a benevolent gentleman in Washington Street, when he gave the
newsboys a lunch. My second course should consist of a potted
partridge, with tomato sauce, desiccated turnips (I didn't know what
_desiccated_ meant, but I took it for granted that it was all right),
and one or two of Lewis's pickles. I would then close with part of a jar
of preserved peaches. I did not need to do much cooking in getting up
this dinner; but I had hot soup, hot tomatoes, and warm turnips, which
got a little smoked, and didn't taste very good,--perhaps, however, that
was because it was desiccated. I enjoyed the dinner tremendously; and
after it was over, and my dishes were all washed and put away, my eye
lighted upon a box, half full of cigars, on the shelf. My first thought
was, "Now I will have a cigar, as the gentlemen do that you see at the
steps of the Tremont House in the afternoon, and that will make it seem
more like home." But, upon second thought, it occurred to me that this
would probably make me so sick for the remainder of the day, that I
should be unable to do any thing, and that I couldn't spare the time. So
I decided not to smoke until I had leisure enough to be ill for a while.

And now, with a throbbing heart, I turned my steps towards the
cabin-door, and entered the gangway. There were two or three doors on
the sides of the narrow passage, which I did not care to open at
present; and so I passed on to the central door that led into the main
room. I had feared that I might be startled by the sight of dead bodies
or skeletons here; but there was nothing repulsive to be seen, nothing
that looked like disorder or confusion. There stood the centre-table,
with a few books and pamphlets lying on it, and two or three chairs
drawn around, and a large lamp suspended above. There was the grate,
containing a few half-consumed embers; there was the compass, swinging
between the stern-windows. A nice Brussels carpet was under my feet; and
there were three doors on either side of the cabin, opening into the
staterooms. The vessel ap