Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/47

 of course, a fixture), scratched one of my shawls, which was near at hand, into it for a cushion, and then rolled himself up into the basin, which exactly held him, and stayed there the rest of the day. George and I saw him do it, and quite wished we had as good a resource for our wretched selves, but the foot-tub would not hold us. The midshipmen acted the ‘Mayor of Garrett’ the other day for our diversion. They made a very pretty theatre, and acted wonderfully well—considering that none of them had ever acted before; and the officers gave us a grand supper in the gun-room afterwards. One of them wrote a prologue, of which I send you some lines, as you like anything about us:

The sailors were so exhilarated by the officers’ play, that the following Friday they announced that, in the ‘Theatre Royal Oriental,’ His Majesty’s servants would perform ‘All the World’s a Stage,’ with a dance—there is no