was. There were two handsome
berths in it an' I had th' top wan. Th' lower wan was already occypied
be a gintleman that had started to feel onaisy on th' way down f'm
London an' was now prepared f'r th' worst. I left him to his grief an'
wint up on th' roof iv th' ship.

"'It was a gay scene f'r th' boat had started. Long rows iv ladies were
stretched on invalid chairs with shawls over thim, pretindin' to read
an' takin' deep smells at little green bottles. Three or four hundherd
men had begun to walk around th' ship with their hands folded behind
thim. A poker game between four rale poker players an' a man that didn't
know th' game but had sharp finger-nails was already started in th'
smokin'-room. About that time I begun to have a quare sinsation. I
haven't been able to find out yet what it was. I must ask Dock O'Leary.
I wasn't sea-sick, mind ye. I'm a good sailor. But I had a funny feelin'
in me forehead between me eyes. It wasn't a headache exactly but a kind
iv a sthrange sinsation like I used to have whin I was a boy an' thried
to look cross-eyed. I suppose it was th' strong light. I didn't have
anny aversion to food. Not at all. But somehow I didn't like th' smell
iv food. It was disagreeable to me an' it seemed to make th' place in me
head worse. Sivral times I wint to th' dinin'-room intindin' to jine th'
jovyal comp'ny there but quit at th' dure. It was very sthrange. I don't
know how to account f'r it. Very few people were sea-sick on th' v'yage,
but sivral hundherd who were injyin' paddlin' a spoon in a cup iv beef
tea on deck spoke iv havin' th' same sinsation. I didn't speak iv it to
th' ship's doctor. I'd as lave carry me ailments to a harness maker as
to a ship's doctor. But there it was, an' fr'm me pint iv view it was
th' most important ivint iv th' passage.

"Next to that th' most excitin' thing was thryin' to find annybody that
wud take money fr'm me. It's a tur-rble awkward thing to have to force
money on an Englishman in a uniform like an admiral's an' talkin' with
an accent that manny iv th' finest people on th' deck were thryin' to
imitate, but I schooled mesilf to it. An' sthrange to say they niver
refused. They were even betther thin that. I was lavin' th' ship whin
th' fellow that pulled th' plug out iv th' other man's bath f'r me
touched me on th' shoulder. I turned an' see a frindly gleam in his eye
that made me wondher if he had a knife. I give him what they call five
bobs over there, whi