Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/18

 for there is nothing so provoking as the hours on board ship—the ﬁre is always put out just as one fancies one might swallow a little tea.

The ayah took advantage of my weak and defenceless condition to establish herself for the night in my cabin, and when I looked up in the night, there she was wrapped up in a heap of Indian shawls, ﬂat on the ground, with her black arms (covered with bracelets) crossed over her head—very picturesque, but rather shocking, and I wish she would sleep anywhere else; at least, I did at first—I am used to it now. Chance is extremely happy; except one or two very rough nights, when his little fat body was rolled off his cushion every ﬁve minutes, and he gave a deep indignant sigh, and a half-growl, and then gathered his tail and ears and his dispersed limbs all together again, and rolled back to his nest. The midshipmen imparted to that they should not like the captain to know it, but they contrived to get Chance down below in the morning, and turned out a little rabbit for his amusement, and had been in a great fright one day that he had caught it.

So much for the voyage. I feel certain that