Far From the Old Folks at Home : My Journal Letters Home During a Twenty-One Months' Tour Round the World (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Far From the Old Folks at Home: My Journal Letters Home During a Twenty-One Months' Tour Round the World

The original ms. Was written on one of Wedgewood's copying-books with an agate pen.on thick again, and we never saw the coast any more. The weather continued foggy all night, and about 5 o'clock this morning we heard the fog-whistle going, which was not very conducive to sleep. However, soon after breakfast, the sun came out, and the wind began to blow fresh, and we have a glorious bright day.

Pvea'nesa'ay, zor/z. - The wind continued fresh all Monday, so much so that, combined with the Atlantic roll, the motion of the ship was not as steady as it had been, and at dinner - time I was conspicuous by my absence from table. It blew pretty hard all night, the sea being highest between 4 and 5 a.m., and when I came on deck about the bows were pretty wet, and I saw one big wave break over and come pouring down the deck. By the way, the performance of turning out and getting on deck necessitated rather a maavaz's quart d'aem'e, and during the day, though the sea moderated a good deal, I was not up to a great amount of running about, or feeding. Harry and George, however, made up for my shortcomings in the saloon, and by the evening my spirits ana' stomach revived, and my appetite began to assume more respectable proportions. It was a jolly, though dark night, and Harry and I could not tear ourselves away from deck, watching the foaming phosphorous till about 1 By the way, it is rather amusing to watch how we lose, or perhaps rather gain time every day, and we have to go and consult the ship's clocks every morning. My watch is now about two hours fast on the time of the sun. This morning was damp and foggy, but it has been clearing a bit gradually, and the wind I think has rather freshened, though it continues pretty steady, and in the same quarter, viz., almost dead ahead. This morning we passed a steamer, the Hartington, quite close, but I have not been able to find out who or what she was. With the exceptionof a sail or two on the horizon, she is the first vessel we have sighted since leaving Queenstown. Our passengers do not seem to improve on acquaint ance; and, with the exception of the Duncans and two or three others, we have not hobnobbed with any of them. Harry and I have just been having a game of pitch farthing, muchly to the edification of a few admiring spectators; and as the coppers necessitated a little soap and water to remove the evil effects, I took advantage of being below to put the style in harness, as writing on deck is not altogether a handy performance; the paper blows about so. Our steward is a very jolly old cock, most obliging and civil. He brings us our café-aa-lal'z every morning after our bath, as we find we wake up too hungry to wait fasting till breakfast.

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