THE STEAM EXCURSION. 



" What an extraordinary circumstance !" ejaculated the same old 

 gentleman, preserving his listening attitude. 



11 What a traveller !" said the young ladies. 



" What a singular name!" exclaimed the gentlemen, rather con- 

 fused by the coolness of the whole affair. 



" I wish he had finished the story," said an old lady. " I wonder 

 what a gum-gum really is ? ' 



" By Jove !" exclaimed Hardy, who until now had been lost in 

 utter amazement, " I don't know what it may be in India, but in 

 England I think a gum-gum has very much the same meaning as a 

 humbug." 



" How illiberal ! how envious !" said every body as they made for 

 the cabin, fully impressed with a belief of the captain's amazing ad- 

 ventures. Helves was the sole lion for the remainder of the day 

 impudence and the marvellous are sure passports to any society. 



The party had by this time reached their destination, and put 

 about on their return home. The wind, which had been with them 

 the whole day, was now directly in their teeth ; the weather had 

 become gradually more and more overcast ; and the sky, water, and 

 shore, were all of that dull, heavy, uniform lead-colour which house- 

 painters daub in the first instance over a street door which is gra- 

 dually approaching a state of convalescence. It had been " spitting" 

 with rain for the last half-hour, and it now began to pour in good 

 earnest. The wind was freshening very fast, and the " jolly young 

 waterman" at the wheel had unequivocally expressed his opinion 

 that there would shortly be a squall. A slight emotion on the part 

 of the vessel now and then, seemed to suggest the possibility of its 

 pitching to a very uncomfortable extent in the event of its blowing 

 harder; and every timber began to creak as if the boat were an 

 overladen clothes basket. Sea-sickness, however, is like a belief in 

 ghosts every one entertains some misgivings on the subject, but 

 few will acknowledge them. The majority of the company, there- 

 fore, endeavoured to look peculiarly happy, feeling all the while 

 especially miserable. 



" Don't it rain ?" inquired the old gentleman before noticed, when, 

 by dint of squeezing and jamming, they were all seated at table. 



" I think it does a little," replied Mr. Percy Noakes, who could 

 hardly hear himself speak, in consequence of the pattering on the 

 deck. 



" Don't it blow?" inquired some one else. 



" No I don't think it does," responded Hardy, sincerely wishing 

 that he could persuade himself it did not, for he sat near the door, 

 and was almost blown off his seat. 



" It'll soon clear up," said Mr. Percy Noakes, in a cheerful tone. 



" Oh, certainly," ejaculated the committee generally. 



" No doubt of it," said the remainder of the company, whose 

 attention was now pretty well engrossed by the serious business of 

 eating, carving, taking wine, and so forth. The throbbing motion of 

 the engine was but too perceptible. There was a large substantial 

 cold boiled leg of mutton at the bottom of the table, shaking like 

 blanc-mange ; a hearty sirloin of beef looked as if it had been sud- 

 M.M. No. 106. 3 C 



