248 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



great steamer. There was a rugged but bewildered 

 old granny among them on her way to join her daugh- 

 ter somewhere in the interior of New York who 

 seemed to regard me with a kindred eye, and toward 

 whom, I confess, I felt some family affinity. Before we 

 had got halfway to the vessel, the dear old creature 

 missed a sheet from her precious bundle of worldy ef- 

 fects, and very confidentially told me that her suspi- 

 cions pointed to the stoker, a bristling, sooty, "wild 

 Irishman." The stoker resented the insinuation, and 

 I overheard him berating the old lady in Irish so 

 sharply and threateningly (I had no doubt of his 

 guilt) that she was quite frightened, and ready to re- 

 tract the charge to hush the man up. She seemed 

 to think her troubles had just begun. If they be- 

 haved thus to her on the little tug, what would they 

 not do on board the great black steamer itself? So 

 when she got separated from her luggage in getting 

 aboard the vessel, her excitement was great, and I 

 met her following about the man whom she had ac- 

 cused of filching her bed linen, as if he must have 

 the clew to the lost bed itself. Her face brightened 

 when she saw me, and giving me a terribly hard 

 wink and a most expressive nudge, said she wished 

 I would keep near her a little. This I did, and soon 

 Lad the pleasure of leaving her happy and reassured 

 beside her box and bundle. 



The passage home, though a rough one, was cheer- 

 fully and patiently borne. I found a compound mo- 

 tion, the motion of a screw steamer, a roll and a 



