- end_line
- 2207
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2147
- text
- corn, meal, and water. With the _“kid,” a_ little tin cannikin was
passed down with molasses. Then the Jackson that I spoke of before, put
the kid between his knees, and began to pour in the molasses, just like
an old landlord mixing punch for a party. He scooped out a little hole
in the middle of the mush, to hold the molasses; so it looked for all
the world like a little black pool in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia.
Then they all formed a circle round the kid; and one after the other,
with great regularity, dipped their spoons into the mush, and after
stirring them round a little in the molasses-pool, they swallowed down
their mouthfuls, and smacked their lips over it, as if it tasted very
good; which I have no doubt it did; but not having any spoon, I wasn’t
sure.
I sat some time watching these proceedings, and wondering how polite
they were to each other; for, though there were a great many spoons to
only one dish, they never got entangled. At last, seeing that the mush
was getting thinner and thinner, and that it was getting low water, or
rather low molasses in the little pool, I ran on deck, and after
searching about, returned with a bit of stick; and thinking I had as
good a right as any one else to the mush and molasses, I worked my way
into the circle, intending to make one of the party. So I shoved in my
stick, and after twirling it about, was just managing to carry a little
_burgoo_ toward my mouth, which had been for some time standing ready
open to receive it, when one of the sailors perceiving what I was
about, knocked the stick out of my hands, and asked me where I learned
my manners; Was that the way gentlemen eat in my country? Did they eat
their victuals with splinters of wood, and couldn’t that wealthy
gentleman my father afford to buy his gentlemanly son a spoon?
All the rest joined in, and pronounced me an ill-bred, coarse, and
unmannerly youngster, who, if permitted to go on with such behavior as
that, would corrupt the whole crew, and make them no better than swine.
As I felt conscious that a stick was indeed a thing very unsuitable to
eat with, I did not say much to this, though it vexed me enough; but
remembering that I had seen one of the steerage passengers with a pan
and spoon in his hand eating his breakfast on the fore hatch, I now ran
on deck again, and to my great joy succeeded in borrowing his spoon,
for he had got through his meal, and down I came again, though at the
eleventh hour, and offered myself once more as a candidate.
But alas! there was little more of the Dismal Swamp left, and when I
reached over to the opposite end of the kid, I received a rap on the
knuckles from a spoon, and was told that I must help myself from my own
side, for that was the rule. But _my_ side was scraped clean, so I got
no _burgoo_ that morning.
But I made it up by eating some salt beef and biscuit, which I found to
be the invariable accompaniment of every meal; the sailors sitting
cross-legged on their chests in a circle, and breaking the hard
biscuit, very sociably, over each other’s heads, which was very
convenient indeed, but gave me the headache, at least for the first
four or five days till I got used to it; and then I did not care much
about it, only it kept my hair full of crumbs; and I had forgot to
bring a fine comb and brush, so I used to shake my hair out to windward
over the bulwarks every evening.
- title
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