Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/43

 It was quite true, and it was wonderful Mr. H was not killed.

These sort of things went on all day. Even in the cockpit (which was supposed to be quite secure) the midshipmen’s chests broke loose, and, as there was a foot-and-a-half of water there, half their things were destroyed.

The waste of property in a gale is one of the worst parts of it. This lasted till one the next morning. Even Fanny could not go in to dinner, and she and I had some macaroni in George’s cabin, with Mars sitting on the floor helping us. Of course the dinner was put on the floor like everything else. At twelve at night, when I was in my cot—which grazed the ceiling every time it swung—the carpenter and three sailors marched in to put in the dead lights in the stern windows. There are no curtains to the cots, and on shore it might have seemed odd to have all those men carpentering in that little cabin; but I could not help laughing when the head carpenter—after knocking and nailing for ten minutes—walked up to me and said he was afraid it was very annoying, but it was the captain’s orders; and I went swinging backwards and forwards, and saying Rh