orange. But the comedian had an axe to grind―most people have―wanted to drop his peel alongside our berth; and it made us uneasy because we did not want such circumstantial evidence lying round us if the captain chanced to come down to inquire. The next man to us had a barny with the man above him about the same thing. Then the peel was scattered round pretty fairly, or thrown into an empty bunk, and no man dared growl lest he should come to be regarded as a blackleg―a would-be informer.
The men opposite the door kept a lookout; and two Australian jokers sat in the top end berth, with their legs hanging over and swinging contentedly, and the porthole open ready for a swift and easy disposal of circumstantial evidence on the first alarm. They were eating a pineapple which they had sliced and extracted in sections from a crate up on deck. They looked so chummy and so school-boyishly happy and contented that they reminded us of the days long ago, when we were so high.
The chaps had a talk about those oranges on deck next day.
The commercial traveller said we had a right to the oranges because the company didn't give us enough to eat. He said that we were already suffering from insufficient proper nourishment, and he'd tell the doctor so if the doctor came on board at Auckland. Anyway, it was no sin to rob a company.
'But then,' said our comedian, 'those oranges, perhaps, were sent over by a poor, struggling orange grower, with a wife and family to keep, and he'll have to bear the loss, and a few bob might make a lot
