Night on a Steamer <r> -o ^^i^ 



(From Essays of Travel) 



T T was a bleak and uncomfortable day ; but at 

 night, by six bells, although the wind had not 

 yet moderated, the clouds were all wrecked and 

 blown away behind the rim of the horizon, and the 

 stars came out thickly overhead. I saw Venus 

 burning as steadily and sweetly across this hurly- 

 burly of the winds and waters as ever at home 

 upon the summer woods. The engine pounded, 

 the screw tossed out of the water with a roar, and 

 shook the ship from end to end ; the bows battled 

 with loud reports against the billows ; and as I 

 stood in the lee-scuppers and looked up to where 

 the funnel leaned out, over my head, vomiting 

 smoke, and the black and monstrous topsails 

 blotted, at each lurch, a different crop of stars, 

 it seemed as if all this trouble were a thing of 

 small account, and that just above the mast 

 reigned peace unbroken and eternal. 



R. L. Stevenson. 



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