The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

falls into a nionotonons
way of life, and the days
mil on one after another,
till you find it difficult to
distinguish them apart.
The hours for meals are
the principal hours of the
da}', and with many per-
sons the table is tlie place
of greatest importance.
They wander from deck
to saloon, and from saloon
to deck again, and hardly
has the table been cleared
after one meal, before they
are thinking what they
will have for the next.
The managers of our great
ocean lines have noted
this peculiarity of human
nature ; some of tliem
give no less than live
meals a day, and if a pas-
senger should wish to eat
something between times,
he could be
dated.
Our younj
accommo-
friends
LIFE AT SEA. 53
THE ENGINEER AT HIS POST.
were too much absorbed with the novelty of their situation to allow the
time to hang heavy on their hands. Everj'thing was new and strange to
them, but, of course, it was far otherwise with Doctor Bronson. They
had many questions to ask, and he was never weary of answering, as he
saw they were endeavoring to remember what they heard, and were not
interrogating him from idle curiosity.
" What is the reason they don't strike the hours here as they do on
land V Frank inquired, as they reached the deck after dinner.
The Doctor explained that at sea the time is divided into watches, or
periods, of four hours each. Tlie bell strikes once for each halfdiour, until
four hours, or eight bells, are reached, and then they begin again. One
o'clock is designated as " two bells," half-past one is " three bells," and