12 CHAPTER I. 



Letters came along from the Chief, judiciously dropped in every 

 month or so, reminding me of the promise to come, remarking upon 

 the word he had received from his head keeper of the health and 

 prosperity of the birds and beasts, I finally settled upon September nine 

 as the earliest date I could leave, and I decided to honor the new 

 great liner, Olympic, with my presence for the voyage over. 



Up to the very second the big ship was nursed out of her dock and 

 headed down New York Bay to the Narrows by the fussy little tugs 

 swarming around her like flies around a gray-hound, I was afraid 

 that something would happen to make the trip impossible. But my 

 luck held, and with a serene conscience and high hopes I headed for 

 those ducks. 



Most of you have sailed the blue seas over. An ocean voyage is 

 no novelty to you, though very few as yet have had a chance to 

 sail on such a ship as the Olympic. As long as a big city block, 

 almost 900 feet, 45,000 tons or over, ten or eleven decks or so, with 

 electric elevators, a swimming pool, and all of those luxurious ap- 

 pointments which the modern sea-traveler seems to require to make 

 him forget that he is not ashore, the Olympic has. She is more 

 like a great floating city hotel than a boat. I confess to liking the 

 small ones better. You are nearer Old Ocean then and do not have 

 to reconstruct your ideas to feel that you are afloat. This presup- 

 poses naturally that winds and waves do not disturb your internal 

 economy to misery and revolt. 



However, I have never been sea-sick that is a straight statement 

 and not a stock phrase so that may account for my desire to be a 

 little more at one with the water than is possible on a colossal ship 

 like the Olympic. She is certainly a beauty, if you go in for big boats, 

 and t the voyage over, mostly spent on deck with the subterfuge of a 

 deck chair and a book as a cloak for dreams of the days to come, 

 made the time from New York to Plymouth slip along until almost 

 before I knew it I was preparing to set foot on Albion's shore. 



Sweet, soft, September days at sea; what can excel them? And 

 then if you are fortunate enough to have in between, as I did, a 

 good stormy day and night of driving winds and whipping spray and 

 tumbling waves, you have just the background for serener enjoyment 

 of the glorious sun, the smiling seas, the tingling, salt-tinged ozone, 

 and the swift surge of old blood made new. 



