They decided that they needed a rest but a short sea
journey was not good …
You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are
going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore,
light your biggest pipe, and swagger
about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher
Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn’t come.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday,
you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer
with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted
people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about
again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and
umbrella in your hand, you stand by the gunwale,
waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.
I remember my brother-in-law going for a short sea trip once, for the
benefit of his health. He took a return berth from London to Liverpool; and when he got to Liverpool, the
only thing he was anxious about was to sell that return ticket.
It was offered round the town at a tremendous reduction, so I am told;
and was eventually sold for eighteenpence to a bilious-looking youth who had just been advised by his medical men
to go to the sea-side, and take exercise.
“Sea-side!” said my brother-in-law, pressing the ticket affectionately
into his hand; “why, you’ll have enough to last you a lifetime; and as for
exercise! why, you’ll get more exercise, sitting down on that ship, than you
would turning somersaults on dry
land.”
He himself—my brother-in-law—came back by train. He said the
North-Western Railway was healthy enough for him.
Another fellow I knew went for a week’s voyage round the coast, and,
before they started, the steward came to him to ask whether he would pay for
each meal as he had it, or arrange beforehand for the whole series.
The steward recommended the latter course, as it would come so much
cheaper. He said they would do him for the whole week at two pounds
five. He said for breakfast there would be fish, followed by a
grill. Lunch was at one, and consisted of four courses. Dinner at
six—soup, fish, entree, joint,
poultry, salad, sweets, cheese, and dessert. And a light meat supper at
ten.
My friend thought he would close on the two-pound-five job (he is a
hearty eater), and did so.
Lunch came just as they were off Sheerness. He didn’t feel so
hungry as he thought he should, and so contented himself with a bit of boiled
beef, and some strawberries and cream. He pondered a good deal during the
afternoon, and at one time it seemed to him that he had been eating nothing but
boiled beef for weeks, and at other times it seemed that he must have been
living on strawberries and cream for years.
Vocabulario:
Swagger: caminar pavoneándose
Wan: pálida
Gunwale: borde
Berth: litera
Bilious: irritable
Somersaults: saltos mortales
Joint: carne
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