But lest I should show myself ungrateful, let me recapitulate
every advantage. At breakfast we had a choice between tea and coffee
for beverage; a choice not easy to make, the two were so surprisingly
alike. I found that I could sleep after the coffee and lay awake
after the tea, which is proof conclusive of some chemical disparity;
and even by the palate I could distinguish a smack of snuff in the
former from a flavour of boiling and dish-cloths in the second. As a
matter of fact, I have seen passengers, after many sips, still
doubting which had been supplied them. In the way of eatables at the
same meal we were gloriously favoured; for in addition to porridge,
which was common to all, we had Irish stew, sometimes a bit of fish,
and sometimes rissoles. The dinner of soup, roast fresh beef, boiled
salt junk, and potatoes, was, I believe, exactly common to the
steerage and the second cabin; only I have heard it rumoured that our
potatoes were of a superior brand; and twice a week, on pudding-days,
instead of duff, we had a saddle-bag filled with currants under the
name of a plum-pudding. At tea we were served with some broken meat
from the saloon; sometimes in the comparatively elegant form of spare
patties or rissoles; but as a general thing mere chicken-bones and
flakes of fish, neither hot nor cold.
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