e efforts of the seamen seemed to be required to
keep them apart.

"Push off!" said the officer.

"Here, stop! I want to go first," exclaimed Rollo.

"No more in this boat," said the officer. "Push off!"

"Never mind," said Rollo, calling out to Mr. George, "I'll come by and
by."

"All right," said Mr. George.

By this time the boat had got clear of the steamer, and she now began to
move slowly onward, rising and falling on the waves, and struggling
violently to make her way.

"I am glad they did not let me go," said Rollo. "I would rather stay
and see the rest go first."

Another boat was now seen approaching, and Rollo stepped back a little
to make way for the people that were to go in it, when he heard Mrs.
Parkman's voice, in tones of great anxiety and terror, saying to her
husband,--

"I cannot go ashore in a boat in that way, William. I cannot possibly,
and I will not!"

"Why, Louise," said her husband, "what else can we do?"

"I'll wait till the steamer goes into port, if I have to wait till
midnight," replied Mrs. Parkman positively. "It is a shame! Such
disgraceful management! Could not they find out how the tide would be
here before they left Dover?"

"Yes," replied Mr. Parkman. "Of course they knew perfectly well how the
tide would be."

"Then why did not they leave at such an hour as to make it right for
landing here?"

"There _are_ boats every day," said Mr. Parkman, "which leave at the
right time for that, and most passengers take them. But the mails must
come across at regular hours, whether the tide serves or not, and boats
must come to bring the mails, and they, of course, allow passengers to
come in these boats too, if they choose. We surely cannot complain of
that."

"Then they ought to have told us how it was," said Mrs. Parkman. "I
think it is a shameful deception, to bring us over in this way, and not
let us know any thing about it."

"But they did tell us," said Mr. Parkman. "Do not you recollect that the
porter at the station told us that this was a mail boat, and that it
would not be pleasant for a lady."

"But I did not know," persisted Mrs. Parkman, "that he meant that we
should have to land in this way. He did not tell us any thing about
that."

"He told us that it was a mail boat, and he meant by that to tell us
that we could not land at the pier. It is true, we did not understand
him fully, but that is because we come from a great distance, and do not
understand t