HARK FORRARD! 35 



There is no place in the world where a 

 person's true character comes to the surface 

 so surely as on board ship. A grip of the 

 hand at parting ; ' Hope we shall meet again ! 

 You have got that address ! Be sure you write. 

 Good-bye, old fellow,' and there perhaps, in fact 

 most probably, passes once and for all out of 

 your life the man whose cabin you have shared, 

 who has perhaps been par excellence your pal 

 daring the whole six weeks ; and yet so fickle 

 is the human heart, so prone to seek fresh fields 

 and pastures new, that ere a fortnight has 

 elapsed, the pal whom you missed so sorely the 

 first day, to whom you promised so faithfully 

 to write, has been thought of less and less 

 frequently, until at last he has almost passed 

 from your thoughts. 



Still perhaps it is as well that it is so. If 

 we were always constant to the past, we should 

 be but poor companions in the present. ' Carpe 

 diem,' and ' Sufficient to the day is the evil 

 thereof,' are two good mottoes. If in conjunc- 

 tion with these one can sa}-, ' Whatever is is 



D 2 



