THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
"Good thing you ain't. You wouldn't get anything fit to eat on this boat, anyway. Just the same there'll be some gruel for you pretty soon if the cook don't forget it or fall asleep. Now then, Cookie, look alive with the young gentleman's wearing apparel! Oh, you've got it, have you?"
"I have; and as to fallin' asleep, believe me, Clancy, I ain't never fallen asleep standin' on my two feet like you do most of the time."
"Is that so? One of your feet would be big enough, without using the other at all. When those clothes are dry, you'd better get into 'em, Mr. Neptune, and then feed your face with some gruel—if you can eat it, which I misdoubt. Then report to me in the engine room. Get that?"
"Yes, sir."
"Right-o!" Clancy viewed him with a fierce scowl, dropped one eyelid in a portentous wink and swung himself out.
Only the cook was left now, save for the occupants of one or two bunks who stirred uneasily in their sleep. The cook had improvised a clothes line above the electric stove and Nelson's things were already gently steaming.
"Wet clothes is against the rules entirely," observed the cook cheerfully. "But if the luff passes 'em it's not for me to be kickin'. Now I'll start
130
