130 THE FLORIST. 



sufficiently high to shew the bold outline of the Devonshire coast, so 

 that the captain's message, and " Land ho !" sounding through the 

 ship, soon brought every body upon deck ; that is, every body who 

 had no watch to keep, for it is no trifle that brings sailors out of their 

 hammocks when it is their watch below. They might have been 

 awakened by the cry, but in another couple of hours be on deck they 

 must, and they knew well enough that the land would keep where 

 it was till that time. 



It is an interesting sight to watch the different manner in which 

 persons are affected on such occasions. Some are all raptures in 

 their expressions ; some take a pride in shewing no emotion at all ; 

 and some are overcome to tears, and stealing from the throng, indulge 

 in them. On the occasion in question, I carefully watched one lady, 

 who, with her daughter, about twelve years of age, was returning from 

 India, having left behind a husband and father to whom they were 

 tenderly attached, and who was to have accompanied them, had not 

 public business prevented him at the last moment. The lady's state 

 of health brooked no delay ; and well it was that she had been com- 

 pelled to make the voyage with us, for her station, and above all her 

 hisrh mind and intellectual character, had shed such an influence over 

 the rest of the lady passengers, to whom her sweet disposition was 

 shewn in the kindest offices, that our passage home had been marked 

 throughout with entire harmony ; a rare occurrence indeed in pas- 

 senger-ships of those days. 



After joining with the group in the burst of mutual congratula- 

 tions on the auspicious event, she drew her daughter to her side 

 (who was a stranger to England, having been born in India), and 

 explained to her, as well as she could make her comprehend, w4iat a 

 delightful season it was on the shore, and her hopes that we should 

 land in time for her to sport among the hay, gather wild flowers, 

 press them, and send them to her father, to remind him of the fields 

 in which he had played when a boy, and to which she hoped he 

 would soon be able to return. But the theme w^as too much for her 

 sensitive mind, and bidding me, as officer of the watch, good night 

 (for the rest had already retired with the intention of an early rising), 

 she left me alone to my quiet nocturnal pacing of the deck. But 

 those few words to her child had found an echo in my breast, for I 

 too was reminded by the " wind of night" of the pleasant fields sur- 

 rounding my country home, of the little cottage and the orchard, 

 upon which my long-left bed-room looked, of the distant rookery, 

 and its noisy, yet to me musical tenants, of the gentle sweUing hills 

 covered wdth the waving crops ripening for the harvest, and of the 

 music of the " sabbath bells" which I hoped would be borne to my 

 ears ere another week had passed over. 



It is not an easy thing to convey to another the exquisite feelings 

 present to the mind on such an occasion. To be alone is to have 

 the very best company, and at this time I found it particularly so. 



Merry peals of laughter from the watch who were gathered to- 

 gether about the biits rose every now and then, as a jet-black African 

 tickled their fancies with some humorous relation or other connected 



