I am sure I would rather be a bargee than occupy any position under

heaven that required attendance at an office. There are few

callings, I should say, where a man gives up less of his liberty in

return for regular meals. The bargee is on shipboard--he is master

in his own ship--he can land whenever he will--he can never be kept

beating off a lee-shore a whole frosty night when the sheets are as

hard as iron; and so far as I can make out, time stands as nearly

still with him as is compatible with the return of bed-time or the

dinner-hour. It is not easy to see why a bargee should ever die.

Half-way between Willebroek and Villevorde, in a beautiful reach of

canal like a squire's avenue, we went ashore to lunch. There were

two eggs, a junk of bread, and a bottle of wine on board the

Arethusa; and two eggs and an Etna cooking apparatus on board the

Cigarette. The master of the latter boat smashed one of the eggs

in the course of disembarkation; but observing pleasantly that it

might still be cooked a la papier, he dropped it into the Etna, in

its covering of Flemish newspaper. We landed in a blink of fine

weather; but we had not been two minutes ashore before the wind

freshened into half a gale, and the rain began to patter on our

shoulders. We sat as close about the Etna as we could. The

spirits burned with great ostentation; the grass caught flame every

minute or two, and had to be trodden out; and before long, there

were several burnt fingers of the party. But the solid quantity of

cookery accomplished was out of proportion with so much display;

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