Chapter 12 - Page 2

niceties of a
gentleman's dinner. Every _plat_," (Saunders had been in the Havre line,
where he had caught a few words of this nature,) "every _plat_ should be
within reach of the _convive's_ arm, and particularly if it happen to be
Captain Truck, who has a great awersion to delays at his diet. As for the
_entremets_, they may be scattered miscellaneously with the salt and the
mustard, so that they can come with facility in their proper places."

"I don't know what an _entremet_ is," returned the subordinate, "and I
exceedingly desire, sir, to receive my orders in such English as a
gentleman can diwine."

"An _entremet_, Mr. Toast, is a mouthful thrown in promiscuously between
the reliefs of the solids. Now, suppose a gentleman begins on pig; when he
has eaten enough of this, he likes a little brandy and water, or a glass
of porter, before he cuts into the beef; and while I'm mixing the first,
or starting the cork, he refreshes himself with an _entremet_, such as a
wing of a duck, or perhaps a plate of pickled oysters. You must know that
there is great odds in passengers; one set eating and jollifying, from the
hour we sail till the hour we get in, while another takes the ocean as it
might be sentimentally."

"Sentimentally, sir! I s'pose those be they as uses the basins uncommon?"

"That depends on the weather. I've known a party not eat as much as would
set one handsome table in a week, and then, when they conwalesced, it was
intimidating how they dewoured. It makes a great difference, too, whether
the passengers acquiesce well together or not, for agreeable feelings give
a fine appetite. Lovers make cheap passengers always."

"That is extr'or'nary, for I thought such as they was always hard to
please, with every thing but one another."

"You never were more mistaken. I've seen a lover who couldn't tell a sweet
potato from an onion, or a canvas-back from an old wife. But of all
mortals in the way of passengers, the bagman or go-between is my greatest
animosity. These fellows will sit up all night, if the captain consents,
and lie abed next day, and do nothing but drink in their berths. Now, this

time we have a compliable set, and on the whole, it is quite a
condescension and pleasure to wait on them."

"Well, I think, Mr. Saunders, they isn't alike as much as they might be
'nother."

"Not more so than wenison and pig. Perfectly correct, sir; for this cabin
is a lobskous as regards deportment and character. I set all the
Effinghams down as tip-tops, or, A No. 1, as Mr. Leach calls the ship; and
then Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt are quite the gentlemen. Nothing is easier,
Mr.