GENERAL NOGI—THAN WHOM NO FINER GENTLEMAN
EVER DREW THE BREATH OF LIFE
MORRIS INSPECTING OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER
“Well, sir,” he replied, “I don’t just know exactly much about them, but it did not seem quite the thing to have Xmas dinner with just old man Gileti and the engineers, so these gentlemen, sir, are some that I found ashore to fill in, sir. I am sure you will find them quite satisfactory.”
Perhaps I sighed a little inwardly, but I am sure I showed no outward emotion as I welcomed the shy and reticent quartette on the sofa. Morris had literally “stood by like steel” every minute of the voyage and this was his occasion, and I was bound that my appreciation should not be lacking.
It really was a wonderful dinner.
The faithful Morris as I then learned had been surreptitiously laying in the wherewithal for this banquet at every port. A young live pig at Sulina Mouth, a goose at Sinope, some birds at Trebizond and heaven only knows what besides. With the back panel of the sealed locker carefully slid out we tapped our liquid refreshment and in very truth the dinner proved a great success. Even the imported guests cheered up and by the end of the banquet were drinking toasts to me, the Chicago Daily News, to Morris, aye, and even unto the fat live pig, alive no longer, alas.
It was midnight when we wound up and sent our guests ashore and ourselves turned in for the night after a day perhaps the most varied in experience that I have ever lived through.