Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1900 — Jack's Growl. [ARTICLE]

Jack's Growl.

The author of “From Edinburgh to the Antarctic,” writing of the sailor’s habit of grumbling, says: “The dinners are all the same; that is to say, Monday's dinners are all alike, ami what we have to-day, we shall have this day six months hence. Jack’s forefather this day a hundred years ago had the same menu, and made the same uncomplimentary remarks about the dishes; and a hundred years hence ou this day Jack’s children will growl over their salt horse and plumless duff.” The author also tells this “yarn” to illustrate that Jack’s habit of grumbling can’t be cured and must be endured: Once upon a time there lived a skipper whose wife said to him that If site went to sea the poor men would never rind fault with their ford. Her husband took her with him cu a voyage, and the good woman attended to the cooking iu the galley herself. The seouse was thick with fresh vegetables, the bread was white nud without weevils, the meat was goofi aud the duff was almost half plums; but still the men grow I < d. Then the skipper's wife thought et the luns she had brought on board to lay eggs for her husband's breakfast. She took them out of the coop, wruug their necks with her own fair hands, plucked them, roasted them, and sent them to the forecastle on the cabin china. “Now the ni“u," she said to herself, “will know how much we think of their comfort." At eight bells she stole forward to the forescuttle to listen to the praise of her skill as a cook. She looked down the hatch, and saw a b!g, black list plunge a fork info the hen, and heard a hoarse voice growl, “I say. Bill, what d’ye think this 'o:e bloody foVvl died of?’’