As to the "table appointments," they were
miserably meagre. The cloth was a piece of an old sail, so soiled and
dirty that it effectually deprived Madame Pfeiffer and her
fellow-passengers of any small appetite with which they might have sat
down to dinner. Madame Pfeiffer began to think that it would be better
to have no cloth at all. She was mistaken! One day she saw the steward
belabouring a piece of sailcloth, which was stretched on the deck under
his feet, to receive a good sweeping from the ship's broom. The numerous
spots of dirt and grease showed plainly that it was the table-cloth; and
that same evening the table was bare. The consequence was, that the
teapot had no sooner been placed upon it than it began to slide; and
nothing but the captain's adroitness prevented the entire "bill of fare"
from being poured into the laps of the guests. It then became evident
that
A table-cloth all foul and stained
Is better far than none at all!
The _Hope_ was twenty days at sea, and for twelve days out of sight of
land. She was wind-driven to the westward, so that her passengers saw
but few of the monsters of the Northern Seas. They caught sight of the
spout of a single whale in the distance; it rose in the air exactly like
a fountain-jet, but the animal itself was too far off for its huge
outlines to be discernible.
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