Page:Ambulance 464 by Julien Bryan.djvu/253

 wouldn't have for a gardener at home, but you must even scrub out his wash bowl and keep his brasses in good condition. I almost fell out of the port-hole today when one of the engineers suggested that I remove the tobacco stains that I had left on his cuspidor. Only a few of them are cranky like this, however. They treat me pretty well; and Marty, one of my partners, says we will make twenty or thirty dollars in tips if we keep their rooms shipshape. I figure I ought to clear fifty dollars on the trip, counting my salary, at forty-five dollars a month and board, which I signed for. A first class passage on the Cunard line would cost one hundred dollars at least, so I am earning one hundred fifty dollars just by two weeks of delightful work.

When meal time comes around, Marty sets the mess room table and gets things ready in general around the pantry, while John, the head mess-boy, puts the officers' saloon in order. I bring all the food in from the kitchen, stuff it into the little steamtable in the corner and then go into the stewards room to copy the menu. Yesterday I tried it in French, but it didn't prove a great success, for when I asked the captain if he would like Hors d'oeuvres for a starter to Sunday night's supper, he said, "Yes, he hadn't had any good vegetable soup for a long time."

Fenton can't keep me any longer on his settee; so