As it continued to rain most perseveringly, we all remained below: the damp gentlemen round the stove, gradually becoming mildewed by the action of the fire; and the dry gentlemen lying at full length upon the seats, or slumbering uneasily with their faces on the tables, or walking up and down the cabin, which it was barely possible for a man of the middle height to do, without making bald places on his head by scraping it against the roof. At about six o'clock, all the small tables were put together to form one long table, and everybody sat down to tea, coffee, bread, butter, salmon, shad, liver, steak, potatoes, pi ham, chops, black puddings, and sausages. "Will you try," said my opposite neigh handing me a dish of potatoes, broken up in and butter, "will you try some of these fixin There are few words which perform such va duties as this word "fix." It is the Caleb Qu of the American vocabulary. You call up gentleman in a country town, and his help inf you that he is "fixing himself" just now, will be down directly: by which you are to un stand that he is dressing. You inquire, on b a steamboat, of a fellow passenger, whether br fast will be ready soon, and he tells you he sh think so, for when he was last below, they v "fixing the tables: " in other words, laying cloth. You beg a porter to collect your lugga and he entreats you not to be uneasy, for he'll it presently: " and if you complain of indispositi you are advised to have recourse to Doctor so a so, who will "fix you" in no time. One night, I ordered a bottle of mulled wine an hotel where I was staying, and waited a long time for it; at length it was put upon the table with an apology from the landlord that he feared it wasn't "fixed properly." And I recollect once, at a stagecoach dinner, overhearing a very stern gentleman demand of a waiter who presented him with a plate of underdone roast beef, "whether he called that, fixing God A'mighty's vittles?' There is no doubt that the meal, at which the invitation was tendered to me which has occasioned this digression, was disposed of somewhat ravenously; and that the gentlemen thrust the broadbladed knives and the two-pronged forks further down their throats than I ever saw the same weapons go before, except in the hands of a skilful juggler but no man sat down until the ladies were seated; or omitted any little act of politeness which could contribute to their comfort. Nor did I ever once, on any occasion, anywhere, during my rambles in America, see a woman exposed to the slightest act of rudeness, incivility, or even inattention. |