We think we have no sweet tooth
as long as we are full to the brim of molasses; but a man must have
sojourned in the workhouse before he boasts himself indifferent to
dainties. Every evening, for instance, I was more and more
preoccupied about our doubtful fare at tea. If it was delicate my
heart was much lightened; if it was but broken fish I was
proportionally downcast. The offer of a little jelly from a fellow-
passenger more provident than myself caused a marked elevation in my
spirits. And I would have gone to the ship's end and back again for
an oyster or a chipped fruit.
In other ways I was content with my position. It seemed no disgrace
to he confounded with my company; for I may as well declare at once I
found their manners as gentle and becoming as those of any other
class. I do not mean that my friends could have sat down without
embarrassment and laughable disaster at the table of a duke. That
does not imply an inferiority of breeding, but a difference of usage.
Thus I flatter myself that I conducted myself well among my fellow-
passengers; yet my most ambitious hope is not to have avoided faults,
but to have committed as few as possible.
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