ble game of "follow my leader."

"Oh! 'tis a goodly sight to see," the show which here presents
itself;--covers of all sizes glisten under the flickering rays of the
morning sun, stealing in through the open deck-light, and dancing about
to the heave of the ship over a well-laid cloth flanked by ready plates
and the weapons of attack.

The signal is made, the covers drawn; and, appetite or no appetite, here
is temptation for all. If the incipient voyager will benefit by my
experience, as he might well have done by my example had we been happy
enough to have possessed his amiable society on board the Europe, he
will develope his main battle against the mutton chops _au naturel_;
then gossip over a slice of broiled _Virginy_ ham, with an egg or twain,
whilst his souchong is getting pleasantly cool; then, having emptied his
cup, flirt with a couple of delicate morsels raised from the thin part
of a salted shad-fish, the which shad, for richness and flavour is
surpassing.

To his second cup he will dedicate the upper crust of a well-baked roll
with cold butter; and, after having duly paused a while, choose between
Cognac and Schiedam for a _chasse_. If he will yet walk with me, I say
unhesitatingly, try Schiedam, in the absence, reverently be it spoken,
of Isla or Innishowen.

Now, my pupil, if this breakfast would, which it could not fail to do,
raise the bastard appetite of your close-curtained, feather-bedded
coal-smoked, snivelling in-dweller of the city, judge of the influence
it must exercise over a child of ocean, who inhales the breath of heaven
freshly as generated beneath the blue sky that vaults his watery world,
pure, uncorrupted, untainted by touch of anything more earthly.

Why, man, it is worth a life of ordinary vegetation to be stirred but
for once by the sensations, such a morning as I draw from, in such a
place, create; and to those who sagely shake the head and doubt, if any
such cavillers there be, I say, "Pay your just debts; make your tenants
easy, that their prayers may be in your sails; forgive your enemies,
kiss your wife, draw up and add in her favour a codicil to your
testament; and your duties being thus fulfilled, with a clean heart,
backed by forty-eight clean shirts, go and try; and if you 'fall not' of
my advice before you again embrace your mother country, curse Fortune
for a perverse wench, and set your humble servant down for false
counsel."

Leaving you now, my pupil, to write, to