CHAPTER IV.

"He that tholes o'ercomes."
"Tak' your venture, as mony a gude ship has done."
_Scotch Proverbs_.


I am disposed to think that a ship is a place where one has occasional
moments of excitement and enthusiasm that are rare elsewhere, but that
it is not to be beaten (if approached) for the deadliness of the
despondency to be experienced therein.

For perhaps a quarter of an hour after our start I felt much excited,
and so, I think, did my companion. Shoulder to shoulder we were glued to
the little round window, pinching each other when the hurrying steps
hither and thither threatened to come down our way. We did not talk
much, we were too busy looking out, and listening to the rushing water,
and the throbbing of the screw. The land seemed to slip quickly by,
countless ships, boats, and steamers barely gave us time to have a look
at them, though Alister (who seemed to have learned a good deal during
his four days in the docks) whispered little bits of information about
one and another. Then the whole shore seemed to be covered by enormous
sheds, and later on it got farther off, and then the land lay distant,
and it was very low and marshy and most dreary-looking, and I fancied it
was becoming more difficult to keep my footing at the window; and just
when Alister had been pointing out a queer red ship with one stumpy mast
crowned by a sort of cage, and telling me that it was a light-ship, our
own vessel began to creak and groan worse than ever, and the floor under