p on searchin'; but
the men they said that shore boat 'u'd sink if we took in any more
cargo, an' so we put back, I feelin' glummer'n I oughter felt, fur I
had begun to be afeared that canned fruit, sech as peaches, was heavy,
an' li'ble to sink.

"As soon as we had got our boxes aboard, four fresh men put out in the
boat, an' after a while they come back with another load. An' I was
mighty keerful to read the names on all the boxes. Some was meat-pies,
an' some was salmon, an' some was potted herrin's, an' some was
lobsters. But nary a thing could I see that ever had growed on a tree.

"Well, sir, there was three loads brought in altogether, an' the
Christmas dinner we had on the for'ard deck of that steamer's hull was
about the jolliest one that was ever seen of a hot day aboard of a
wreck in the Pacific Ocean. The cap'n kept good order, an' when all
was ready the tops was jerked off the boxes, and each man grabbed a can
an' opened it with his knife. When he had cleaned it out, he tuk
another without doin' much questionin' as to the bill of fare. Whether
anybody got pidjin-pie 'cept Andy, I can't say, but the way we piled in
Delmoniker prog would 'a' made people open their eyes as was eatin'
their Christmas dinners on shore that day. Some of the things would
'a' been better cooked a little more, or het up, but we was too fearful
hungry to wait fur that, an' they was tiptop as they was.

"The cap'n went out afterwards, an' towed in a couple of bar'ls of
flour that was only part soaked through, an' he got some other plain
prog that would do fur future use. But none of us give our minds to
stuff like this arter the glorious Christmas dinner that we'd quarried
out of the Mary Auguster. Every man that wasn't on duty went below and
turned in fur a snooze--all 'cept me, an' I didn't feel just altogether
satisfied. To be sure, I'd had an A1 dinner, an', though a little
mixed, I'd never eat a jollier one on any Christmas that I kin look
back at. But, fur all that, there was a hanker inside o' me. I hadn't
got all I'd laid out to git when we teched off the Mary Auguster. The
day was blazin' hot, an' a lot of the things I'd eat was pretty
peppery. `Now,' thinks I, `if there had been just one can o' peaches
sech as I seen shinin' in the stars last night!' An' just then, as I
was walkin' aft, all by myself, I seed lodged on the stump of the
mizzenmast a box with one corner druv down among the splinters. It was
h