INTO THE FROST AGAIN. 315 



well known to sailors, which, as the eye catches it in one 

 direction, is a ridiculous caricature ; in another, really noble, 

 and even beautiful. With what joy did we round the 

 old Xeedles, and run past Hurst Castle; and with what 

 shivering, too. For the wind, though dead south, came to us 

 as a continental wind, harsh and keen from off the frozen 

 land of France, and chillecl us to the very maiTow all the 

 way up to Southampton. 



But there were warm hearts and kind faces waiting us on 

 the quay, and good news too. The gentlemen at the Custom- 

 house courteously declined the least inspection of our lug- 

 gage; and we were at once aw^ay in the train home. At 

 first, I must confess, an English winter was a change for 

 the worse. Fine old oaks and beeches looked to us, fresh 

 from ceibas and balatas, like leafless brooms stuck into 

 the ground bv their handles ; while the want of IvAit was 

 for some days painful and depressing. But we had done it ; . 

 and within the three months, as we promised. As the 

 king in the old play says, "What has been, has been, and 

 I've had mv hour." At last we had seen it ; and we could 

 not unsee it. We could not not have been in the Tropics. 



THE END. 



