an anybody he
had ever talked mule with. His brother officer is delighted to hear this,
as he has been uneasy about the mules' appetites; they would devour all
the hay and coarse feed they could get hold of, but didn't seem to have
that constant hankering after grain that he had always understood to be
part and parcel of a horse's, and, consequently, a mule's, nature. He
knows something about horses, he says, for his wife keeps a pony in
Scotland, and the pony would leave hay at any time to eat oats and bran;
consequently, he thinks there must be something radically wrong with the
mules; and yet they seem lively enough--in fact, they seem d-d lively.
The two salts are also troubled somewhat in their minds at the marvellous
kicking powers and propensities of the mules. One says he could
understand an animal kicking to defend itself when attacked in the rear,
or when anything tickled its heels, but the mules aboard the Mandarin had
their heels in the air most of the time, and they battered away at one
another, and pounded the iron bulwarks, without the slightest
provocation. "Yes," chimes in the other officer, "and, more than that,
I've seen 'em throw their heels clear over the bulwarks, kicking at a
white-capped wave--if you'll believe me, sir, actually kicking at a
white-capped wave--that happened to favor them with a trifle of
spray." I say I have no doubt what the officer says is true, and not
necessarily exaggerated, and the officer says: "No, there is no
exaggeration about it. You'll see the same thing yourself before you've
been aboard twelve hours. There'll be h-ll to pay aboard this ship when
we strike the monsoons."
After explaining to the officers that there are not men enough, nor
bulldozing and tyrannical mules enough, aboard the Mandarin to scare the
timidest mule of the consignment into jumping over the bulwarks into the
sea; that it is quite natural for mules to prefer hay to bran and oats,
and that it is as natural and necessary for a four-year-old mule to kick
as it is to breathe, they thank me and say they shall sleep sounder
tonight than they have for a week. The heat, as we steam slowly down the
Red Sea, is almost overpowering at this time of the year, July. A
universal calm prevails; day after day we glide through waters smooth as
a mirror, resort to various expedients to keep cool, and witness fiery
red sunsets every evening. Every day the deck presents a scene of
animation, from the pranks and v
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