Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/250

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solitude. After this we met together in the cabin, and gave our thanks in our own modest way for the blessings which kind Heaven had vouchsafed us; and then each one set himself about his allotted duties. It is needless to say that these duties concerned chiefly the preparation and advancement of every thing which concerned a "Christmas dinner." The officers dressed the cabin with flags, and the sailors decorated their walls and beams with stripes of red, white, and blue flannel which was loaned to them from the ship's stores. The schooner was illuminated throughout, and every lamp was called into requisition. An extra allowance of oil was granted to the occasion, and the upper-deck was refulgent with light. Two immense chandeliers were constructed for the dinner-*tables, and some gold and silver paper, strings of spangles, and strips of braid, kindly presented to us by Mr. Horstmann for the winter theatricals, which have never come off, covered the wood of which they were composed, and gave them quite an air of splendor; while two dozen of spermacetti candles brilliantly illuminated the apartments in which they hung.

A short time before the dinner-hour I visited the men's quarters, at their request, and was as much gratified with the taste that they had exhibited as with the heartiness with which they entered into the spirit of the day. Every nook and corner of the hold was as clean and tidy as possible. Everybody was busy and delighted. The cook might, however, be regarded as an exception to the latter rule, for the success of everybody's projects depended upon his skill, and he was closely watched. I halted at his red-hot galley-stove, and wished him a merry Christmas. "Tank you, sar!" said he; "but I gets no time