called--keeps open house; and it's considered the right thing for the
other nine fellows to drop in on him some time during the day, just
to cheer him up a bit. Well, we soon made the discovery--old Cloud,
I fancy, made it--that tea and rum were about the best things to have
on these occasions. To-day it was my day, and to-morrow it will be
some other fellow's, don't you know. And, by Jove, how lucky I was to
meet you at the _pulperia!_ It will be ever so much jollier now."

I had certainly not stumbled upon a charming little English paradise
in this Oriental wilderness, and as it always makes me uncomfortable
to see young men drifting into intemperate habits and making asses of
themselves generally, I was not rapturously delighted with "old Cloud's"
system. Still, I was glad to find myself with Englishmen in this distant
country, and in the end I succeeded in making myself tolerably happy.
The discovery that I had a voice pleased them greatly, and when,
somewhat excited from the effects of strong cavendish, rum, and black
tea, I roared out:

And may his soul in heaven dwell
Who first found out the leather botel,

they all got up and drank my health in big tumblers, and declared they
would never let me leave the colony.

Before evening the guests departed, all except the Captain. He had sat
with us at the table, but was too far gone in his cups to take part
in the boisterous fun and conversation. Once in about every five minutes
he had implored someone in a husky voice to give him a light for his
pipe, then, after two or three ineffectual puffs, he would let it go
out again. He had also attempted two or three times to join in the