Digital heart book

From one till four dancing
takes place upon the grass; the bar does a roaring
business; and the honorary steward, who has already
exhausted himself to bring life into the dullest of the
messes, must now indefatigably dance with the plainest
of the women. At four a bugle-call is sounded, and by
half-past behold us on board again--Pioneers,
corrugated iron bar, empty bottles, and all; while the
honorary steward, free at last, subsides into the
captain's cabin over a brandy and soda and a book.
Free at last, I say; yet there remains before him the
frantic leavetakings at the pier, and a sober journey
up to Pinkerton's office with two policemen and the
day's takings in a bag.
What I have here sketched was the routine. But we
appealed to the taste of San Francisco more distinctly
in particular fetes. "Ye Olde Time Pycke-Nycke,"
largely advertised in hand-bills beginning "Oyez,
Oyez!" and largely frequented by knights, monks, and
cavaliers, was drowned out by unseasonable rain, and
returned to the city one of the saddest spectacles I
ever remember to have witnessed.


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