the pipe to which I immediately had recourse had a comforting
influence; perhaps my familiarity with all objects on the road, at
least as far as Star Cross, made me feel as though I had not yet
left home; or perhaps, it was the secret consciousness that all the
Seymours, Lintons, and Harleys had promised to be on the Warren to
see us wave our heads out of the window. Whatever the course might
have been during the whole of our railway journey, our stay at the
hotel, and even _some_ hours subsequently, I felt almost jolly, but
what a world of misery lies implied in that underlined "some."
However, I won't anticipate, but relate from the beginning the
history of my ideas and experiences up to the present time. There is
little that you do not already know connected with our departure
from the docks and our journey as far as the last light ship, that
is concerning incidents which would appear to be worth mentioning.
We were rather fortunate in seeing nearly all the most celebrated of
the Atlantic steamers. The "City of Rome" was lying alongside a
wharf within a stone's throw of us, the "Alaska," "Arizona,"
"America," and "Oregon," were all passing in or out, or lying at the
wharves, these being I believe the four fastest ocean steamers
afloat. The Allan boat "Peruvian" left the dock just astern of us,
and as we afterwards discovered, arrived twelve hours before us. We
very soon found, when dinner time came round that we were going to
live like fighting cocks; there was a tremendous spread, soup, fish,
entrées, joints, entrees, sweets, cheese, dessert and bills of fare.
We looked forward to ten days of systematic fattening, an excellent
preparation as we thought for our troubles to come in the way of
struggles for bread, in the country to which we were journeying.
What a mistake! That meal we fattened, also at the ensuing meal, a
kind of high tea at six o'clock we continued the process. At
breakfast next morning all operations were suspended, and by the