Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/491

 board is a great reader, and gets a new book out of the library every day. He sits near me on deck, and frequently criticises the authors of the books he reads. Still, it is easier to be a great critic than it is to be a great author This man knows many things I never heard of. He says he once knew a boy only seven years old who was an ordained preacher in the Methodist church. I knew better, but I did not argue with him. I've quit arguing; I hear foolish statements every day without contradicting them. In the smoking-room today I heard a man say that a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church need not be a priest, and that a cardinal might marry if he chose. Another man said Mark Twain was once a preacher, and had a regular charge.

—This has been the most disagreeable day of the voyage. The wind blew a hurricane, but shifted so frequently that it kept the sea down, although it was so bad that most of the passengers were ill. The captain, when he came down to breakfast, said to the few present: "I'm sorry." Meaning the weather; he had promised us a fine voyage. The captain is a very polite man; when he comes into the dining-room, in the morning, he speaks to most of the passengers, and goes about to shake hands with some of them. He is very solicitous of those who are ill, but Captain Trask, of the American ship "Sonoma," thought it a disgrace to be seasick, and would barely speak to any of his passengers so afflicted. He used to say he was never seasick in his life, and that seasick