Viewing page 39 of 40
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
39 However, when we were having our pre-luncheon drink in the smoking room, a bell boy came in and told Bill that a baby rabbit had been born, and was running around the deck. "Rabbit" might mean anything - capybara, cavy, viscacha, or nutria. We went down to see what it was, and round that the sailors had picked up a baby cavy and put it into the box. As we had two pairs of cavies, Bill wondered how he was going to tell which were the parents. As he squatted on his heels in front of the cages, he suddenly saw a second baby in one cage, establishing the maternity of the female. He put the first baby in with the second, and we went down to lunch, only hoping that people would leave them alone, andlet the mother take care of her babies in peace. An hour later we crossed the Equator, and decided to name one of the babies "Miss Equator" - if she came alive to Washington. In the night a steward knocked on our door, waking us up. "If you please, sir," he said, "one of the officers has sent you a message." "What is it?" says Bill, half asleep. "There is trouble in the rabbit cage, sir" "I can't do anything about it in the middle of the night Bill decided. "I'll have a look-see inthe morning." "Sir" said the steward, "I have given you the message." In the morning we found that the mother cavy had sat on one of her babies, and that only one of the twins was alive. However, Bill maintained that there was nothing we could do about it, and that the remaining one had a much better chance of life if left with his mother than if taken out and raised on a bottle. June 22 - Trinidad We spent a hot, muggy day ashore, having got up at six o'clock in order to care for our charges and be able to leave the ship at ten. We hired a car for the day, and were taken first to the Angostura bitters factory, where great barrels of the aromatic herb are stored in semi-darkness, and where a free bar lures tourists in from the ships. We drove about town, and out to the suburb where most fo the Hindus live, calling on one old man who had quite a few animals in his yard. He was also a silversmith, and I bought a little tinkling ring from him. We lunched at the Queen's Park, which has gone Broadway on us since we were last here, and were disappointed to find the atmosphere so altered, and the food so poor. We had especially wanted "pastelles" - native dish, of meat rolled in cornmeal and cooked in banana leaves, but the supply ran out before we got any. In the afternoon we visited some of the shops, both Oriental and English, and went back to the ship an hour or more before the sailing hour of six.
