ands made our
mouths water.

"Lor', it ain't much to holler about!" exclaimed the fastidious
Larrikins, on Mick rubbing his hands at seeing those appetising viands;
while `Ugly' cried out joyously, on noticing his mealy mass of potatoes,
"Them's the raal jockeys fur I," thus paraphrasing the remark of a once
celebrated millionaire possessed of much lucre but boasting of little
conversational power, when at a state banquet, "Why, we only calls this
aboard `two spuds and a Jonah!'"

"I can see the `spuds' all right," said I; "but where's the Jonah?"

"That be the bone, silly!"

With which withering rejoinder, Larrikins left us to enjoy ourselves
with the food he contemned; though he probably went away to make a
hearty dinner off the same at his own mess on the deck below, where his
division "hung out."

Nothing further of any note occurred during the afternoon to mar the
harmony or vary the monotony of our `bag and hammock drill,' at which we
were religiously kept up to the time to leave off work; when we enjoyed
again our tea-supper, and skylarked afterwards till it was time to `turn
in,' which we managed to do now more comfortably as well as
expeditiously than on the night before; while, I may add, my dreams
happily were not disturbed by any storms and thunder-claps of that imp
Larrikins' contrivance.

The next day, Saturday, it was a case of `wash and scrub decks,' and
wash and scrub everything, I think, from early morning till dewy eve.

A very `dewy' eve it was, too, if dampness made it so; but if one did
feel wet and miserable, as I confess I was, the remembrance it brought
back to my mind of my mother's house-cleaning at home being almost too
vivid to be pleasant, still, everybody on board had the satisfaction of
knowing that the ship was as smart as holystone and sand could make her,
from upper deck to keelson, I verily believe!

I was none the less miserable, either, the following morning, when all
the boys were rigged out in their best and inspected by the captain; for
the tailor, true to the character of all `snips' since the days when
Adam started in that line with his fig-leaf costume, never sent on
board, as he promised, the uniforms of us unfortunate novices, so we
could neither make a decent appearance with the rest of our comrades,
nor have permission to go ashore--`unclothed' scarecrows, as some of us
were, would have seemed queer fish to come from a well-ordered ship.

On Monday, however, all