thes-basket. Sea-sickness, however, is like a belief in ghosts--every
one entertains some misgivings on the subject, but few will acknowledge
any. The majority of the company, therefore, endeavoured to look
peculiarly happy, feeling all the while especially miserable.

'Don't it rain?' inquired the old gentleman before noticed, when, by dint
of squeezing and jamming, they were all seated at table.

'I think it does--a little,' replied Mr. Percy Noakes, who could hardly
hear himself speak, in consequence of the pattering on the deck.

'Don't it blow?' inquired some one else.

'No, I don't think it does,' responded Hardy, sincerely wishing that he
could persuade himself that it did not; for he sat near the door, and was
almost blown off his seat.

'It'll soon clear up,' said Mr. Percy Noakes, in a cheerful tone.

'Oh, certainly!' ejaculated the committee generally.

'No doubt of it!' said the remainder of the company, whose attention was
now pretty well engrossed by the serious business of eating, carving,
taking wine, and so forth.

The throbbing motion of the engine was but too perceptible. There was a
large, substantial, cold boiled leg of mutton, at the bottom of the
table, shaking like blancmange; a previously hearty sirloin of beef
looked as if it had been suddenly seized with the palsy; and some
tongues, which were placed on dishes rather too large for them, went
through the most surprising evolutions; darting from side to side, and
from end to end, like a fly in an inverted wine-glass. Then, the sweets
shook and trembled, till it was quite impossible to help them, and people
gave up the attempt in despair; and the pigeon-pies looked as if the
birds, whose legs were stuck outside, were trying to get them in. The
table vibrated and started like a feverish pulse, and the very legs were
convulsed--everything was shaking and jarring. The beams in the roof of
the cabin seemed as if they were put there for the sole purpose of giving
people head-aches, and several elderly gentlemen became ill-tempered in
consequence. As fast as the steward put the fire-irons up, they _would_
fall down again; and the more the ladies and gentlemen tried to sit
comfortably on their seats, the more the seats seemed to slide away from
the ladies and gentlemen. Several ominous demands were made for small
glasses of brandy; the countenances of the company gradually underwent
most extraordinary changes; one gentleman was observed s