to cut away the planks on which it feeds. Some
pump, some look after the women and children, some
secure their treasures, some unhinge their state-room
door preparatory to a plunge, and finally the heroic
imperiled — laugh and disperse. It was the custom
for one of the officers to organize certain of the pas-
sengers into a fire brigade, allotting each his respec-
tive station and duty ; when the roles had been given,
and the line of action once or twice explained, every
few days thereafter the fire alarm was struck, and
each sprung to his post. The benefit of this exercise
was three-fold : first it promoted safety by adding to
the corps of workers, secondly it tended to allay fear
should there be a real alarm, and thirdly it affordec^
amusement.
Evening bestows by far the most delightful hours of the tropical twenty-four. Then the awning is rolled up, the suffocating breath of day hies westward after the sun, and the fresh cooling air, welcome as water to the parched tongue, falls on the face like a benediction. The firmament is dense with stars, gathering lustre with the growing night, and lining the great concave from horizon to horizon like a canopy of transient azure thick-studded with blazing gems. The ship's wake, which during the day is changingly tri-colored — upon a ground-work of deep blue, mottled cloud of bright green, frosted with pearly froth, and burnished and spangled by the sun's rays — is now luminous with phosphorescent fire. This is the romance of sea-voyaging, the poetry of travel.
Occasionally the engine is stopped to repair a valve, to renew the wadding of the piston, or to put in a new beam — by which delay we may imagine what it is to be becalmed at sea, to lay lolling like a spirit newly disembodied, poised in space before setting out on its career, dead and conscious of it. But such de- tentions are usually short, and soon we were on our way again. Church service was usually held on Sun- days; if a clergyman was on board he
