t day in a steamer for Gibraltar. Agamemnon felt that here
was the place for him, and hastened to consult his family. Perhaps he
could persuade them to change their plans and take passage with the
party for Gibraltar. But he reached the pier just as the steamer for
Bordeaux was leaving the shore. He was too late, and was left behind!
Too late to consult them, too late even to join them! He examined his
map, however,--one of his latest purchases, which he carried in his
pocket,--and consoled himself with the fact that on reaching Gibraltar
he could soon communicate with his family at Bordeaux, and he was easily
reconciled to his fate.

It was not till the family landed at Bordeaux that they discovered the
absence of Agamemnon. Every day there had been some of the family unable
to come on deck,--sea-sick below. Mrs. Peterkin never left her berth,
and constantly sent messages to the others to follow her example, as she
was afraid some one of them would be lost overboard. Those who were on
deck from time to time were always different ones, and the passage was
remarkably quick; while, from the tossing of the ship, as they met rough
weather, they were all too miserable to compare notes or count their
numbers. Elizabeth Eliza especially had been exhausted by the voyage.
She had not been many days seasick, but the incessant singing of the
birds had deprived her of sleep. Then the necessity of talking French
had been a great tax upon her. The other passengers were mostly French,
and the rest of the family constantly appealed to her to interpret their
wants, and explain them to the _garcon_ once every day at dinner.
She felt as if she never wished to speak another word in French; and
the necessity of being interpreter at the hotel at Bordeaux, on their
arrival, seemed almost too much for her. She had even forgotten to let
her canary-birds fly when off shore in the Bay of Biscay, and they were
still with her, singing incessantly, as if they were rejoicing over an
approach to their native shores. She thought now she must keep them till
their return, which they were already planning.

The little boys, indeed, would like to have gone back on the return trip
of the steamer. A son of the steward told them that the return cargo
consisted of dried fruits and raisins; that every stateroom, except
those occupied with passengers, would be filled with boxes of raisins
and jars of grapes; that these often broke open in the passage, giving
a