28 
THROUGH ASIA 
It was a ccld, dark, autumn evening such as I shall 
never forget ; heavy rain-clouds hung over the city of 
Stockholm, and her lights soon vanished from sight. 
More than a thousand and one nights of loneliness and 
longing were before me ; everything I held dear was 
behind me. Yet that first night was the bitterest of all; 
I never suffered so much from home-sickness again. 
Only those who have left their country for a lengthened 
period, and with the clouds of uncertainty before them, can 
conceive the feelings which such a break occasions. But, 
on the other hand, the whole wide world was before me, 
and I determined to do all that lay in my power to 
solve the problems which I had set myself. 
