230 



AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



at times a stupid satisfaction in seeing my two new 

 London trunks belabor each other about my state-room 

 floor. Nearly every day they would break from their 

 fastenings under my berth and start on a wild race for 

 the opposite side of the room. Naturally enough the lit- 

 tle trunk would always get the start of the big one, but 

 the big one followed close and sometimes caught the 

 little one in a very uncomfortable manner. Once a 

 knife and fork and a breakfast plate slipped off the 

 sofa and joined in the race, but if not distanced they 

 got sadly the worst of it, especially the plate. But the 

 carpet had the most reason to complain. Two or 

 three turns sufficed to loosen it from the floor, when 

 shoved to one side the two trunks took turns in butting 

 it. I used to allow this sport to go on till it grew mo- 

 notonous, when I would alternately shout and ring 

 until " Robert " appeared and restored order. 



The condition of certain picture-frames and vases 

 and other frail articles among my effects, when I 

 reached home, called to mind not very pleasantly this 

 trunken frolic. 



It is impossible not to sympathize with the ship in 

 her struggles with the waves. You are lying there 

 wedged into your berth, and she seems indeed a thing 

 of life and conscious power. She is built entirely of 

 iron, is 500 feet long, and besides other freight carries 

 2,500 tons of railroad iron which lies down there flat in 

 her bottom, a dead, indigestible weight, so unlike a 

 cargo in bulk, yet she is a quickened spirit for all that. 



