THE WORLD OF ICH. 185

treme ends of the apartment, to freeze a Jug of water
solid.

A large table occupied the upper end of the cabin
between the stove and the stern, and round this the
officers and crew were seated when O’Riley entered
and took his place among them. Each individual had
his appointed place at the mess-table, and with un-
varying regularity these places were filled at the
appointed hours.

“The dogs seem to be disobedient,” remarked Amos
Parr, as his comrade sat down; “ they’d be the better
of a taste o’ Meetuck’s cat, I think.”

“Tt’s truth ye’re sayin’,” replied O'Riley, commenc-
ing a violent assault on a walrus-steak ; “they don’t
obey orders at all, at all. An’ Dumps, the blaggard,
is as cross-grained as me grandmother's owld pig—”

A general laugh here interrupted the speaker, for
O'Riley could seldom institute a disparaging compari-
son without making emphatic allusion to the pig that
once shared with him the hospitalities of his grand-
mother’s cabin.

“Why, everything you speak of seems to be like
that wonderful pig, messmate,” gaid Peter Grin.

Ye’re wrong there intirely,” retorted O'Riley. “I
niver seed nothing like it im all me thravels except
yerself, and that only in regard to its muzzle, which
was black and all kivered over with bristles, 1b wos.
Tll throuble you for another steak, messmate; that
walrus is great livin’—We owe ye thanks for killin’
it, Mister Ellice.”