might get directed wrong. I shall be more comfortable if I know that, at
any rate, you will go straight on board."

Tom had thought it an unnecessary expense, but as he saw that Carry
would be more comfortable about him if he followed her advice, he
promised to do so, and was not sorry for it as he drove through the
streets; for, in spite of cutting down everything that seemed
unnecessary for the voyage and subsequent journey, the portmanteau was
too heavy to carry far with comfort, and although prepared to rough it
to any extent when he had once left England, he felt that he should not
like to make his way along the crowded streets with his trunk on his
shoulder.

The cabman had no difficulty in finding the _Parthia_, which was still
in the basin. Tom was, however, only just in time to get on board, for
the men were already throwing off the warps, and ten minutes later she
passed out through the dock-gates, and soon anchored in the middle of
the river. Tom had been on board too many ships at Portsmouth to feel
any of that bewilderment common to emigrants starting on their first
voyage. He saw that at present everyone was too busy to attend to him,
and so he put his portmanteau down by the bulwark forward, and leaning
on the rail watched the process of warping the ship out of the docks.
There were a good many steerage passengers forward, but at present the
after-part of the ship was entirely deserted, as the cabin passengers
would not come on board until either late at night or early next
morning. When the anchor had been let drop he took up his trunk and
asked a sailor where he ought to go to.

"Show me your ticket. Ah! single man's quarters, right forward."