the two masts named the galley, and here the cooking
was done. The cook was an old man, gruff and
crusty, who had spent most of his life in a Dundee
whaler. In the Arctic region his good nature had
got frozen and was not yet thawed out. He would
allow nobody near and got angry when suggestions were
tendered. He made good porridge and tasty soup,
anything else he spoiled. As these alone were
cooked in bulk and measured out, the passengers took
to the galley the food they wished to be cooked.
That each family get back what they gave in, the food
was placed in bags of netted twine and then slipped
into the coppers of boiling water. The mistress
was a famous hand at roley-poley, and for the first
Sunday after sea-sickness had gone, she prepared a
big one as a treat. It looked right and smelled
good, but the first spoonful showed it had a wonderful
flavor. In the boiler the net beside it held a
nuckle of smoked ham. The laughter and jokes
made us forget the taste of the ham and not a scrap
of the roley-poley was left. Our greatest lack
was milk for the children, and we all resented being
scrimped in drinking-water, though before the voyage
ended we became reconciled to that, for the water
grew bad.
There were 43 passengers. There were two families
besides our own, and outside of them were a number
of young men, plowmen and shepherds, intent on getting
land and sending for their people to join them the
next spring. There was an exception in a middle-aged
man, brisk and spruce, who held himself to be above
his fellow-passengers, and said nothing about where
he came from or who he was. The only information
he gave was, that he had been in the mercantile line,
and that he was to be addressed as Mr Snellgrove.
He waved his right hand in conversation and spoke
in a lofty way, which to Allan and myself was funny.
When he had got his sealegs and his appetite, he began
lecturing the passengers as to what they ought to
do, enlarging on organizing a committee, of which
he was to be head. I think I see him, strutting
up and down the deck by the side of the captain with
whom it gratified him to walk. The only other
passenger besides him who was not connected with farming
was Mr Kerr, to whom I became much attached.
He was well-informed on subjects I had heard of but
knew nothing, and we talked by the hour. His
companionship was to me an intellectual awakening.
Among his purchases in Troon was material for a suit
of clothes, which he made during the voyage, for he
was a tailor. He had left Greenock in such haste
that he had not time to go to his lodging for any
of his belongings. Mr Snellgrove affected to
despise him both for his trade and his political principles,
and never missed an opportunity to sneer at him; Mr
Kerr never replied.
Print
Word
PDF
