20 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



to write about what is most interesting us ! Well, the wind 

 and weather. Bad time when it comes to that ? Well, now, 

 here I am, sitting on a trunk, bracing myself between two 

 berths, with my portfolio on my knees imagine the motion 

 of the vessel, the flickering, inconstant half-light that comes 

 through a narrow piece of inch-thick glass, which the people 

 on deck are constantly crossing, exclamations from them, 

 dash of waves and creaking of timber, and various noises 

 both distracting and lullaby ing, and if you can t understand 

 the difficulty of thinking connectedly, you may begin to that 

 of writing. 



John s eyes have been bad, and we have read aloud with 

 him a good deal ; but I tell you it is hard work even to read 

 on board ship. We have had some good talks, have listened 

 to a good deal of music, and to a bad deal, and had a few 

 staggering hops with the ladies on the quarter deck. We 

 contrived a set of chess-men, cutting them out of card-board, 

 fitting them with cork pedestals, and a pin-point to attach 

 them to the board so they would not slip off or blow away. 

 Charley has had some capital games, and I believe found his 

 match with Dr. M., one of the cabin passengers returning 

 home from the East Indies by way of California, who prom 

 ises to introduce him at a London chess club. 



I told you in my letter by the pilot-boat, how we had 

 been humbugged about the second cabin. While this has 

 reduced the cost of our passage to a very small sum, we have 

 had almost every comfort that we should have asked. Our 

 room is considerably more spacious, having been intended 

 for a family apartment, and has the advantage of much less 

 motion than those of the first cabin. For a ship s accommo 

 dations it has, too, a quite luxurious degree of ventilation and 

 light. There is a large port in it that we can open at pleasure, 

 having only been obliged to close it during two nights of the 



