It Was Misfort'nate.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 329, 29 December 1888, Page 5

It Was Misfort'nate.

' You axes if I'd a Christmas dinner !' said a sailor to a few of his friends on shore. c Well, we very nearly managed it ; bub I'll bell yer 'ow we wos done out of the grub. We was a'goin from Riga to .Hull,* and thought as 'ow we should- get into port 'bout Christmas Eve. \Yell, when we jusb got clear of the Sound, a gale came on,' an' we thought if we put in Christmas anywhere, it would,, be among the fishes. Then the wind goes down a bit, and on Christmas morning the cook was able to light the galley fires, and set about gettin' us what he could in the way of dinner. The chap didn't do that bad ;he faked up .bit of , uff and summut else. Just as all ot us, 'cepb the man at the wheel an' the look- out, was sittin' down to 'joy ourselves, who should come alongside but a boat-load of shipwrecked men. Poor chaps, their had gone down in the storm, -and they 'ado't 'ad nothink to eat for two days. Well, in course they 'ad the first pull of 'the dinner, an' bless yer, none of it was left in less nor five minutes. Us chaps' didn't grudge the poor coves the feed ; but we did think ib was misfort'na'e that the shipwrecked blokes didn't manage to get aboard a bigger ship where there was more grubfe about!' ' l * IJ 7f