t is worse in this way; John's
berth smelt horrible, but it was warm and weather-tight. You never
swallow a drop of pure air in Fenchurch Street Station, and yet you
cannot find a corner in which you can get out of the draughts.

With one gale blowing on my right from an open door, and another gale
blowing on my left down some steps, and nasty smells blowing from
every point of the compass, I stood at a dirty little hole in a dirty
wooden wall and took our tickets. I had to stand on tiptoe to make the
young man see me.

"What is the cheapest kind of tickets you have, if you please?" I
inquired, with the canvas bag in my hand.

"Third class," said the young man, staring very hard at me, which I
thought rather rude. "Except working men's tickets, and they're not
for this train."

"Two third-class tickets for Victoria Dock, then, if you please," said
I.

"Single or return?" said he.

"I beg your pardon?" I said, for I was puzzled.

"Are you coming back to-day?" he inquired.

"Oh dear, no!" said I, for some of the captain's voyages had lasted
for years; but the question made me anxious, as I knew nothing of
railway rules, and I added, "Does it matter?"

"Not by no means," replied the young man smartly, and he began to
whistle, but stopped himself to ask, "Custom House or Tidal Basin?"

I had no alternative but to repeat "I _beg_ your pardon?"

He put his face right through the hole and looked at me. "Will you
take your ticket for Custom House or Tidal Basin?" he repeated;
"either will do for Victoria Docks."

"Then whichever you please," said I, as politely as I could.

The young man took out two tickets and snapped them impatiently in
something; and as a fat woman was squeezing me from behind, I was glad
to take what I could get and go back to Fred.

He was taking care of our two bundles and the empty pie-dish.

That pie-dish was a good deal in our way. Fred wanted to get rid of
it, and said he was sure his mother would not want us to be bothered
with it; but Fred had promised in his letter to bring it back, and he
could not break his word. I told him so, but I said as he did not like
to be seen with it I would carry it. So I did.

With a strong breeze aft, we were driven up-stairs in the teeth of a
gale, and ran before a high wind down a platform where, after annoying
one of the railway men very much by not being able to guess which was
the train, and having to ask him, we got in among a lot of
rough-