l the sum due to the owners for their transportation had been
paid--a sum far too large, it would seem.

Jack was sick for a number of days after the voyage began but Solomon,
who was up and about and cheerful in the roughest weather, having spent
a part of his youth at sea, took care of his young friend. Jack tells
in a letter that he was often awakened in the night by vermin and every
morning by the crowing of cocks. Those days a part of every ship was
known as "the hen coops" where ducks, geese and chickens were confined.
They came in due time through the butcher shop and the galley to the
cabin table. The cook was an able, swearing man whose culinary
experience had been acquired on a Nantucket whaler. Cooks who could
stand up for service every day in a small ship on an angry sea when the
galley rattled like a dice box in the hands of a nervous player, were
hard to get. Their constitutions were apt to be better than their art.
The food was of poor quality, the cooking a tax upon jaw, palate and
digestion, the service unclean. When good weather came, by and by, and
those who had not tasted food for days began to feel the pangs of
hunger the ship was filled with a most passionate lot of pilgrims. It
was then that Solomon presented the petition of the passengers to the
captain.

"Cap'n, we're 'bout wore out with whale meat an' slobgollion. We're
all down by the head."

"So'm I," said the Captain. "This 'ere man had a good recommend an'
said he could cook perfect."

"A man like that kin cook the passengers with their own heat," said
Solomon. "I feel like my belly was full o' hot rocks. If you'll let
me into the galley, I'll right ye up an' shift the way o' the wind an'
the course o' the ship. I'll swing the bow toward Heaven 'stead o'
Hell an' keep her p'inted straight an' it won't cost ye a penny.
They's too much swearin' on this 'ere ship. Can't nobody be a
Christian with his guts a-b'ilin'. His tongue'll break loose an' make
his soul look like a waggin with a smashed wheel an' a bu'sted ex. A
cook could do more good here than a minister."

"Can you cook?"

"You try me an' I'll agree to happy ye up so ye won't know yerself.
Yer meat won't be raw ner petrified an' there won't be no insecks in
the biscuit."

"He'll make a row."

"I hope so. Leave him to me. I'm a leetle bit in need o' exercise,
but ye needn't worry. I know how to manage him--perfect. You come
with me to the galley an' tell h