234 WINTER SUNSHINE 



be seen and heard of men. I doubt if the like ever 

 occurs among travelers of any other nationality. 

 Englishmen or Frenchmen or Germans want some- 

 thing more warm and human, if less "refined;" 

 but the average American, when in company, likes 

 nothing so well as an opportunity to show the na- 

 tional trait of "smartness." There is not a bit of 

 danger that we shall ever relapse into barbarism 

 while so much latent literature lies at the bottom of 

 our daily cares and avocations, and is sure to come 

 to the surface the moment the latter are suspended 

 or annulled! 



While abreast of ISTew England, and I don't 

 know how many miles at sea, as I turned in my 

 deck promenade, I distinctly scented the land, — a 

 subtle, delicious odor of farms and homesteads, 

 warm and human, that floated on the wild sea air, 

 a promise and a token. The broad red line that 

 had been slowly creeping across our chart for so 

 many weary days, indicating the path of the ship, 

 had now completely bridged the chasm, and had got 

 a good purchase down under the southern coast of 

 New England, and according to the reckoning we 

 ought to have made Sandy Hook that night; but 

 though the position of the vessel was no doubt 

 theoretically all right, yet practically she proved 

 to be much farther out at sea, for all that afternoon 

 and night she held steadily on her course, and not 

 till next morning did the coast of Long Island, like 

 a thin, broken cloud just defined on the horizon, 

 come into view. But before many hours we had 



