Dear Diary,
    Mary Grace helped me out alot. She made a leash for Poena. She loves it. It is so cute. She made one for Lucky, Flower and Sammy, and I am going to tell her that I think she should make one for Princess. Shoshanna has a girl piglet too. So Poena plays a lot with her.
   Then, there is Ignia; she is going on about the Roman city of Pompeii. I know that there was one, but it was sadly destroyed. Then this is another thing—she says she lived there, and Vesuvius blew up. She was saved somehow by the fact that she got sucked into the wormhole on to this ship.
   The crew is trying bananas for the first time. I ate mine. I was careful not to drop the peel. I gave some to Poena. She ate them all. Though, some others didn't. They got the whip.
   I helped Enaila in the galley today. I know what a galley is because that it was in a story I read: Charlotte Doyle. That story actually took place the same year. In 1832.
   Anyways, I made banana bread. The crew loved it. Uncle said that the crew would get this—only the ones who ate their dinner. The other ones who didn't eat all of it would have none. Amazingl,y they had eaten all of their food for a whole week now. I have to make three loaves every morning for the night. I do hope that they don't beg me for five! We are running out of bananas.
   I helped get food by fishing. Everyone was impressed that I caught four buckets of fish and a sailfish the size of a kitchen table all by myself. We are planning to preserve half of all the fish we all caught. The other half goes into the cook's pot. I also went on land with Fuegia, Aliaranel, Mary Grace, Shoshanna, Ingia, Enaila, Sipho, and Janis to colect herbs. We practiclly didn't need a guard. I taught them to say Hyi-ya at my signal to scare away animals. We picked so much food that Uncle was real pleased.
   I am sewing some new uniforms for the crew. Their things are a mess. I have to go now, though—I have to get back to work with the uniforms. I have bargained to much time to write in you, and haven't done much work.

      
Sincerely,      
Mary       

P.S. Notice that I said "Sincerely, Mary", so you would know it is me writing in you.