Mark now left me, and I fell back nearly exhausted from having talked so long to him.
After some time Tom appeared with a basin of hot black coffee, with some biscuit floating in it.
“Can’t I have a little milk?” I asked.
“We’ve not any cows on board here,” he answered with a laugh; “and there are no dairies in the Atlantic, unless Daddy Neptune happens to keep sea-cows.”
“You must have thought me very silly to ask for milk,” I said, as I ate up the sopped biscuit, and drank the hot coffee, which was well sweetened with sugar.
“It shows you are something of a greenhorn, lad,” he answered, laughing, “but no wonder your wits aren’t of the brightest after having been shut up in the dark so long; you shall have something else by-and-by. Remember what I told you; don’t be getting well too soon, that’s all.”
Chapter Fifteen.
My convalescence—Julius Caesar befriends me—We pass the Cape de Verde Islands—Our hopes of a change of diet disappear—My turn at last—A severe discipline—Captain Longfleet—“Please, sir, I couldn’t help it”—“There goes the baby and his nurse”—Caesar’s sympathy—How I owed my life to Tom Trivett—Bad food—“It makes me sick to cook it”—The deputation to the captain—The discontent increases among the crew—Crossing the line—“What ship is that?”—We receive a visit from Daddy Neptune and his court—Rough play, and what it might have come to.