The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 114: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

yi ae Ce gt a ae THE STREAM PACKET. 8] ry previously lighted them; and the gentlemen seemed to grow upon the best possible terms not only with themselves, but with every one else. - Again the dance .was resumed; and the ladies all underwent a change with respect to their partners. On this occasion Mr. Pifpaf himself condescended to join in the animated scene; and the delighted. Luminaries beheld their respected leader now conduct to a comfort- able, though somewhat sultry place near the chimney, that same elderly- lady, who, on the previous day, had received a glass of brandy-and- water instead of negus. This venerable and respectable dame, albeit she had seen the better side of fifty-five summers, smiled and smirked as well as she was able; and if she did not “‘ look unutterable things ”’ at her partner, it was probably because she had only one eye to look anything at all with. Mr. Buckram could not contain his mirth when he beheld this interesting couple ; and that feeling was not a little in- creased when he perceived, as soon as the quadrille began, that both Mr. Pifpaf and the dowager were about as intimately acquainted with the figures as a donkey, when he brays, 1s supposed to be with euphony. Nevertheless, away started the excellent chairman, the moment the symphony was concluded, dragging the fat dowager along with himn— his bulbous nose actually shaking with the exertion—and his whole countenance being literally one benignant smile. ‘“* Go it, young people!” shouted a voice from amongst the specta- tors in the forepart of the vessel: “Jim Crow ain’t nothin’ to it! There, turn to the right, old lady—how wery orkard you air—hooray for Pifpaf!”’ Fortunately the dancers were too much occupied with their own employment to pay much attention to these remarks: but Captain Pentonville had a shrewd suspicion whence they camé. Meantime Mr. Pifpaf and the dowager had blundered through the first figure somehow or another, and were now in the middlé of the second. ~ Just at the moment when the elderly lady was in the act of performing a most graceful pirouette, some one trod upon the sore tail of the little dog already noticed; and the animal sprang, howling and wagging its afflicted member, across the deck. Unfortunately for the poor dow- ager, the luckless animal rushed between her legs ;—she lost her equi- librium—a thing much more easy for her to lose than recover,—and fell heavily upon the deck. Mr. Tiptile, the short and thick-set treasurer, was whirling round, puffing and blowing like a grampus, when he came in contact with the dowager’s legs, and lost his own. A scene of great confusion took place ;—the élderly lady’s bonnet and cap came off in the sort of scuffle that ensued after Mr. Tiptile’s fall; but the harm would not have been so great, had not the aforesaid eae and G Gomicbooks (E(0)