all, yet those who might ridicule the observance of the Sabbath
themselves, avoided any proceedings calculated to shock what they might
term the prejudices of others.

On the next day we had a slight head wind for the first time; most of the
passengers were sea-sick, and those who were not so were promenading the
wet, sooty deck in the rain, in a uniform of oilskin coats and caps. The
sea and sky were both of a leaden colour; and as there was nothing to
enliven the prospect but the gambols of some very uncouth-looking
porpoises, I was lying half asleep on a settee, when I was roused by the
voice of a kind-hearted Yankee skipper, saying, "Come, get up; there's a
glorious country and no mistake; a great country, a progressive country,
the greatest country under the sun." The honest sailor was rubbing his
hands with delight as he spoke, his broad, open countenance beaming with a
perfect glow of satisfaction. I looked in the direction indicated by his
finger, and beheld, not the lofty pinnacled cliffs of the "Pilgrim
Fathers," but a low gloomy coast, looming through a mist.

I already began to appreciate the hearty enthusiasm with which Americans
always speak of their country, designated as it is by us by the names
"National vanity," and "Boastfulness." This _esprit du pays_, although it
is sometimes carried to a ridiculous extent, is greatly to be preferred to
the abusive manner in which an Englishman accustoms himself to speak of
the glorious country to which he appears to feel it a disgrace to belong.
It does one good to hear an American discourse on America, his panegyric
generally concluding with the words, "We're the greatest people on the
face of the earth."

At dusk, after steaming during the whole day along the low green coast of
Nova Scotia, we were just outside the heads of Halifax harbour, and the