Eight Frenchmen, even eight Englishmen from another rank of society,
would have dared to make some fun for themselves and the spectators;
but the working man, when sober, takes an extreme and even melancholy
view of personal deportment. A fifth-form schoolboy is not more
careful of dignity. He dares not be comical; his fun must escape
from him unprepared, and above all, it must be unaccompanied by any
physical demonstration. I like his society under most circumstances,
but let me never again join with him in public gambols.
But the impulse to sing was strong, and triumphed over modesty and
even the inclemencies of sea and sky. On this rough Saturday night,
we got together by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered from the
wind and rain. Some clinging to a ladder which led to the hurricane
deck, and the rest knitting arms or taking hands, we made a ring to
support the women in the violent lurching of the ship; and when we
were thus disposed, sang to our hearts' content. Some of the songs
were appropriate to the scene; others strikingly the reverse.
Bastard doggrel of the music-hall, such as, 'Around her splendid
form, I weaved the magic circle,' sounded bald, bleak, and pitifully
silly.
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