A. “... Yes, he quite got pally with this Customs fellow—?”
B (older than A, hastily interrupting): “I wouldn’t trust any Customs fellow, not if he’d got a pair of b— wings on.”
The Optimist went on its way with the weeks. Mead added “The Vamp” to his cabinet of tales of mystery; but the strain of discovering subjects apart from the steward and the galley was clearly growing. The prominence of food and meal times upon a tramp was described in a ballad published about this time.
Thoughts of a Romantic.
Ten thousand miles from land are we,
Hark how the wild winds pipe!
What grand reflection swells in me?
This morning we’ll have tripe.
For ever and evermore
These billows rage and swell;