by us since Thursday morning.

We have lots of rats on board; the Sub-Matron killed one Tuesday. Yesterday she had one on her head; she very pluckily knocked it down and put her foot on it. One of the girls had one scratching her ear in bed. She felt its little cold nose smelling about her face.

This is a lovely day - very warm on deck. I am sitting one side of the fence, John and Elizabeth and the children on the other. I have just given them our spare bread as they do not get enough. We have not found our appetites yet.

This has been a busy morning, scrubbing, scraping and rubbing with holy stone and sand, and now that we have got it all nice we shall have to go through the same process on board another ship. It is rather